March 11 Earthquake

Hi All,

Let me begin this post by assuring everyone that Russell and I are absolutely fine. Kobe barely felt anything and there was no damage that I know of in this region.

That story is quite different in Tokyo and farther north. There was a very strong earthquake (magnitude 8.7-8.9 depending on the source of info) a few hundred kilometers off the coast of Tokyo (at least I think that's what I understand...). Tokyo got an extremely strong and prolonged earthquake as a result and there have been many (more than 30?) aftershocks - a more than a few in the 6.0 - 7.1 range. The most frightening result of the earthquake was series of tsunami waves that caused extreme damage on the northern tip of Honshu Island (the biggest island) and along the coast line. As I'm writing this, most of the Eastern coast is still under high alert for tsunami waves. I'm sure you'll see some of the incredible tsunami footage on the news in the U.S. Its hard to believe. There was also a huge fire at an oil refinery in Chiba (close to Tokyo). Thankfully, there was no damage to nuclear reactors, even in the worst hit areas.

Here in Kobe I was at work, writing textbooks. A few hours after lunch, a student who was working on a college entrance essay in the English office looked up and said, "Jaci. I think its an earthquake." I thought she was kidding (I hadn't noticed anything) when I realized there was a very gentle shifting from side to side going on. It was like having a long bought of vertigo or stepping onto a gently rocking boat. Everything would lazily shift horizontally one way and then lazily shift back. There was no strong shaking or noise. It lasted forever, too. My student had time to get a text message from her mother, notify me, wait, my co-worker walked to the window and looked out pensively at the harbor, then looked back into the office, we waited, and then I sent a text message to Russell before it ended. It definitely lasted more than a minute and seems like it must have lasted several minutes - though I'm a bad judge of such things. I've never been in an earthquake that lasted more than 10 seconds, though, so this one seemed to go on forever. There were times I doubted it was still going and instead thought my mind was playing tricks on me. When it was over, we laughed about it and went back to work.

My student got a message from her brother (who is studying in Canada) asking if she was okay. She was confused about why he was asking and how he would know about the earthquake so shortly after it happened - especially when he is clear across the Pacific. I thought maybe he was talking about one of the earthquakes that hit Japan earlier this week, though those were only felt in the far north of Honshu. About an hour later someone informed us that there had been a giant earthquake farther north and a tsunami warning had been issued. My boss came in and asked us all to go home. The school had decided to evacuate everyone as a precaution. We are on a break for the end of the academic year right now, so there thankfully aren't that many people on campus.

It was also at that point that the tsunami damage on the very north coast of Honshu came up. One of my co-workers has in-laws in that area of Japan - and they live right on the coast. He raced home to get a hold of his wife. I just got the message that her family was okay, so that's a huge relief. I hope our students are all okay, too. Since its vacation time right now, they are spread far and wide across Japan. The ones I know of in Tokyo are fine, but the far majority could be anywhere.

After being evacuated I took the train back to downtown Kobe and even though the tsunami warning for Kobe was for less than a meter, Russell and I played it safe and headed home (which is far enough up the mountain that even a 10 meter tsunami wouldn't come close to us. I haven't seen an update on the tsunami peak heights in a while, but the last one I saw for Kobe was 30cm. I doubt that was enough to cause even slight flooding around Port Island (where my school is) or the docks around Kobe.

I haven't seen any footage on TV of heavy damage or injuries from the earthquake anywhere in Japan, with the exception of a few rural houses - which seems hard to believe. I don't think any other country in the world could have fared as well as Japan just has. That said, the footage of the tsunami in the north is pretty chilling. Apparently it crested over 7 meters in one city - so at least 21 feet high. I'm very worried about what the reports will be coming out of the north over the next few days.

My heart goes out to all the families that have been affected by this earthquake and tsunami.