Community Corner

Patch Reporter's 1st-Person Account of Quake Aftermath

Patch reporter Sonia Narang is on the ground in Japan with an account of how the earthquake has affected the country, and she shares photos and her experiences.

Former South Pasadena Patch local editor Sonia Narang arrived in Japan one day before the 8.9 magnitude earthquake devastated the country. She is currently in western Japan, away from areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami. She filed this report from Kanazawa, Japan, on Saturday.

Aftershocks continue to hit Tokyo and eastern Japan as a 1,300 mile swath of the eastern coast starts to think about how it will recover from this major tragedy. I arrived in Osaka, Japan, on an international journalism fellowship on March 10, less than 24 hours before the earthquake hit.

On March 11, I boarded a train from Osaka to Kanazawa at 2:42 p.m. and four minutes later, the earthquake struck. Because I was on a moving train, I didn’t feel the ground shake, and I got word of the disaster from a text message from my family in California. People on the train were reading the news on their cell phones and showing me pictures of severe damage in Tokyo. I spoke to people in various parts of Japan about the earthquake and the aftermath.

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In Kanazawa, located about 300 miles away from the hard-hit areas of eastern Japan, people have been glued to Japanese television news since the earthquake and tsunamis hit. Every TV channel is showing a constant stream of footage: homes and cars engulfed by water, broken bridges, people gathering in evacuation shelters, and nuclear reactor explosions.

I spoke to many locals who were incredibly saddened by the news. Chieko Kinoshita, a Japanese taiko drummer from Hakusan City, a city of 120,000 people in Ishikawa Prefecture, western Japan, said she couldn’t sleep all night after watching the news.

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“We were very worried," she said. "We send our prayers to the people affected by the earthquake and I hope they will recover.” Kinoshita and her drumming group were planning to travel to a concert this morning by bus to Fukushima, an area hard hit by the earthquake. However, roads leading in and out of the area were destroyed and the concert was cancelled. Fukushima is also the site of a nuclear power plant that has been leaking dangerously high levels of radioactive vapor in the aftermath of the quake. An explosion at this nuclear plant also sent a cloud of smoke into the air Saturday afternoon.

Hakusan City’s Education Minister Kiyonori Miyazaki said: “This earthquake is the biggest one Japan has experienced in recent history. I thought someday it would happen on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.” Miyazaki said his city plans to send money and Red Cross assistance to earthquake victims.

Many in this area have friends and family near the epicenter. Sumiyo Asano has not yet heard from a friend who lives in small town in Fukushima Prefecture, despite repeated attempts to call. The phone lines in many parts of Japan are still down and it is especially difficult to call in and out of the hardest hit areas.

When news of the earthquake first broke, Asano was in the office of her family business. “It seemed like it was just out of a movie,” she said about the devastating tsunami images shown on the news. “It could take many years to recover,” she said. The people in this part of Japan are no strangers to earthquakes. The peninsula just north of Kanazawa was the epicenter of a strong earthquake a few years ago.

Over in Tokyo, people are still experiencing strong aftershocks as of late Saturday night Japan time. Tokyo, a city of more than 13 million people, came to a standstill when the earthquake hit Friday afternoon. English teacher Kelina Her was in a busy part of Tokyo when she felt her first earthquake.

“As soon as the ground started shaking, people grabbed onto whatever they could find,” Her said. “I didn’t know what to do. People were holding onto doorways and pillars. I tried to grab onto a fence. I was watching buildings sway. Everything was just shaking. It was so scary.” Nearby she saw many children huddled with their parents next to a preschool.

Soon after the first quake hit, a giant aftershock rattled Tokyo. People rushed out of buildings and into the streets.

Waka Sudo, a 26 year-old human resources consultant was working on her computer on the 26th floor of a high rise near Tokyo train station. “At first the earthquake felt a little wavy, but it got bigger and bigger,” Sudo said. “I felt like I was getting seasick. I thought I was going to die,” she said. “The ground shook for two to three minutes without stopping.”

After the earthquake, people told employees not to move, but then a second quake hit, prompting a full building evacuation.

In an office building in another part of Tokyo, Martin Garnes, a human resources executive said he and his co-workers ran down the stairs to get into open space after the earthquake. He remembers seeing the tower of a nearby Catholic church swinging as he evacuated his office.

“The people around me were saying it was the worst earthquake they had ever felt.,” he said. Late into Friday night, aftershocks continued to shake as frequently as every five minutes, according to Garnes. “I didn’t sleep much. A lot of people are still nervous. “

The earthquake disrupted Tokyo’s massive transportation system. “We couldn’t get any trains because they were shut down. All the taxis were taken and bus lines were incredibly long,” Her said. She walked for several hours to reach a friend’s house where she could take shelter. “For the first time, I felt like I was fighting for my life. A lot of people are fearful it might happen again.”

Monica Narang contributed reporting to this article.

As of Saturday night Japan time, aftershocks magnitude 5.0 and higher continue to hit northern and eastern Japan. For a list of earthquakes in Japan within the past few days, visit http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/quake_singendo_index.html

Please click in the photo box above for photographs taken in Tokyo by Kelina Her and Martin Garnes after the earthquake hit. Also, click on the videos above to view Japanese television footage of the earthquake and tsunami aftermath.


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