The NewsroomFirst person accounts from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan
Details from Tokyo: 'I honestly thought the building was going to collapse'
This is just my personal account of the earthquake from Tokyo; Friday's earthquake struck in Sendai, but while the earthquake wasn't centered here, it was large enough even here to cause a lot of destruction.
I didn't feel the earthquake on Wednesday, but I did feel the 6.1-magnitude tremor on Thursday morning. I was under my desk, terrified and talking to my friend one floor above me on the phone, begging her to do the impossible and make the quake end. That was a 6.1 and it was one of the most frightening days of my life. I never knew the floor could move around so much.
When I was chatting online on Friday, sitting again in my Tokyo dorm room, I felt another one start. It felt small, so I just cursed in my chat conversation and mentioned that we were having an earthquake again. Then I got under the desk. That's what I do, even if it's small.
Within moments, the shaking grew worse than any I'd felt in my life.
Japan's 'eerie' earthquake: An American in Tokyo
Eerie. That was how the experience of Japan's latest earthquake was described by a veteran familiar with living with the natural occurrence. Benjamin Grier, an economist for a Hong Kong-based think tank, visits Tokyo and other areas of Japan often. Grier had planned to be in town for a quick presentation and planned to extend the trip into a short holiday. Now he is having trouble getting back home. As life-long friend, former business partner and current co-writer of our blog, I usually speak with him at least once per week. With utter chaos all over the news networks I picked up the phone to call him and got the voice mail without ringing.
When the Quake got Creepy
Most earthquakes are a fairly quick experience. But toward the end of the meeting when the world started to rumble everyone systematically moved to the doorways. A few giggled and others just waited silently. But when the quake lasted for more than a minute the event felt like an eternity.
"I was doing the nervous giggle trying to give myself a little more confidence, hoping it would rub off on the really scared guy next to me. That changed after a couple minutes of constant, strong, shaking. It felt like we were frozen in time," he told me over the phone once cellular service was restored.
Grier is no stranger to earthquakes. He has lived in the earthquake active area for over a decade and describes the duration of the quake in retrospect as "eerie." At one point he was convinced the earth would not stop shaking until it demolished the world's most quake-proof buildings. Possibly out of spite.
Illinois native in elevator during Japan earthquake
Betty Johnson is an American civilian employee at the Yokosuka Military Base just south of Tokyo. The city, known for its naval importance, is also known for the Earthquake Preparedness and Awareness Center near city hall where people can experience the feeling of a strong earthquake in a controlled environment.
Johnson, whom I have known for a decade since she attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, experienced this week's earthquake in a controlled environment as well -- an elevator.
"I was actually in the elevator on my way downstairs to go to work when the earthquake hit at about 2:45 p.m., local time. It got me to the first floor before powering down, thankfully. The initial quake went on for quite a while, probably a good couple minutes," she said.
By the time I heard about the quake, Johnson had already posted on her Facebook page to let friends and family in the United States know that she was fine. Her cat was upset by the quake and aftershocks, she said, but otherwise, they rode out the quake fairly well. Johnson lives on base and didn't have to fight the local traffic after everything began closing because of the earthquake and the aftershocks.
"After I got to work, there were the 2 large aftershocks, and they evacuated the building both times. Most people were allowed to go home shortly after, so traffic on base got pretty bad, for a while. I know that the Ikego housing in Zushi had a power outage, but it was back up around 6:45 p.m.," she wrote. Johnson shared her story via Facebook private message.
After earthquake, radiation fears plague us in Tokyo
Sendai is nearly 200 miles north of Tokyo and was the epicenter of the massive 8.9 magnitude quake that struck Japan on Friday. The earthquake was definitely felt here in Tokyo (Read details from Tokyo after the quake), with the magnitude that we felt being identified as more than 6 points on the Richter scale. It was enough to rock buildings, start fires, and cause tremendous damage.
I woke up this morning to an e-mail from a friend that clued me into some updates to the situation around me. She recommended eating lots of seaweed starting today, her reasons being that iodine intake with food may help to expel radioactive iodine from your body. I've heard other stories about seaweed and black tea helping to combat radiation poisoning and side-effects, as well.
This information has suddenly become important because of the escalation in the problem with nuclear plants throughout Japan. At the moment, Japan has declared states of emergency for a total of five nuclear reactors at two power plants (Yahoo! News). In one of the innermost rooms, radiation levels were 1,000 times above normal at one of the reactors.
While the authorities are, of course, trying to keep everybody as calm as possible, there is fear of nuclear radiation escaping. Nearly 14,000 people who live in the vicinity of these plants have already been evacuated by the government, and radiation has already leaked from a nuclear reactor which had its roof blown off after the quake.
Q-and-A: Eyewitness to Japan's earthquake
Japan has always been one of the safer countries to visit for a variety of reasons, but the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami suggests that there are always serious risks. My 18-year-old son is going off to college next year, majoring in Japanese language and culture. As a part of those studies he hopes to study abroad in Japan, and possibly pursue an advanced degree from a Japanese University. As a parent, having my child that far away naturally worries me.
Shortly after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan, I had the opportunity to discuss the situation with Patrick Clarke, a 27-year-old native of Denver who spent two years teaching English in Japan and is now pursuing his master's degree in global studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. In all, he has spent the last three years living in Japan and was in Tokyo when the devastating earthquake occurred on Friday.
