The Kindness of Strangers - Surviving the Big One

Growing up in California there was always the threat of the Big One.  The giant earthquake that was going to cause California to break off from the rest of the continent and create its own island.  People used to joke about buying ocean front property in Phoenix just in case.

I've experienced lots of earthquakes but nothing like what happened on Friday.  There were signs.
There was a 7.1 earthquake a couple days earlier on Wednesday.  Russell and I both felt it and texted back and forth we were Ok.

So when I started to feel the first rumblings on Friday, as I sat reading with Ranger on the guest futon, I didn't think much about it.  Oh, it's just another aftershock; I'm not going to bother getting up.  It seemed mild at first and then things really started shaking and Ranger started barking.  I grabbed him and ran into the bedroom.

Here's the weird thing, last week Russell was out of town.  I couldn't sleep the entire time he was gone.
When he got home and asked me how I was I admitted to him that I'd spent all five nights he was away spinning about the possibility of an earthquake and what I would do if one happened.  I'd identified what I thought would be the safest place in the house and what I would pack if I had to make a quick exodus.  I even admitted to Russell that I had seriously contemplated wearing my clothes to bed and packing the backpack up.  We laughed at this.  He told me I had nothing to worry about.

The good thing about the Wednesday earthquake is that it was the impetus of establishing our earthquake plans in case a big one were to occur.  Serendipitous?

Ranger and I cowered between the bed and the dresser.  My theory was the bed and dresser would create an airspace if the ceiling were to collapse on us.  As I said I'd spent hours thinking about this.  I held Ranger tight and tried to get him to stay down beneath me.  I kept trying to sooth him and tell him it was ok while on the inside I was desperately praying for it to stop. I kept pleading "please stop, please stop" over and over in my head.  The earthquake was horrible.  It seemed to last forever.  It was awful.  Adjectives do not exist to convey the horror and utter vulnerability.   I have never been so afraid in my life. The worst part, besides watching Ranger's whole body tremble in fear and realize I was doing it too, was hearing the buildings creak from the strain of the quake.  It is a horrifying sound listening to the rafters and walls creaking under the strain of the quake.  I kept expecting the ceiling to cave in at any minute.  It didn't.

 In fact besides the doors slamming open and the shut, the only thing amiss in the apartment were some fallen candlesticks and pictures.   Thank God for Tokyo building codes; I hear they are the strictest in the world.  If this quake had hit L.A. we'd be dead right now.

As soon as the quake started to dissipate I loaded up the backpack with dog food, water and Cliff bars and exited the building immediately.  Neighbors were gathered right outside my apartment door, shaken but Ok.   Ranger and I assembled at the emergency evacuation area, which is a five minute walk from my apartment.  There were about 200 people in the park.  I was the only blond there.  The Japanese people were so nice.  They kept asking me if I was Ok and giving me news.  Most of them were watching Japanese newscasts on their cell phones but they couldn't reach loved ones.  There was a tsunami warning blaring over the city's P.A. system (not a radio; literally speakers throughout the city - something L.A. should consider) and several people came to tell me what the announcements meant.  It was amazingly heartwarming.

Russell was at Nissan headquarters in Yokohama which is 26 kilometers south of Tokyo.  He was on the 5th floor of an all glass building with 21 floors.  People were screaming at this location.  As soon as the initial earthquake subsided he and his associates escaped the building (which was not damaged) and were redirected from the way they were heading because there was a crane tottering on the top of a 23 story construction site.  He and his associates walked five hours back to Tokyo.  Their path lead them through parts of the city in total darkness.  There were no trains or taxis running, the freeways and airport were shut down.  The few buses were overloaded and traffic in general was grid locked.

I could not reach Russell.  A different kind of fear began to take hold - a cold aching dread.   Ranger and I stood in the center of the park, away from the trees and waited.  A huge aftershock hit but people did not panic.  Everyone comforted each other in the park.  Later I found out it was 7.1.   More aftershocks came.  You could tell because there was a statue in the park that tottered precariously every time another quake hit.

Everyone had a cell phone but they couldn't get through.  An American guy asked me if he could use my phone.  He'd been on the 48th floor of the Mori tower in Roppongi Hills when the quake hit. It's a twenty minute walk from there to the park.  He'd run the entire way.   I had to leave the phone on the steps and walk away because Ranger was growling at any body who came too close.  Other than that he was amazingly well behaved.  The call couldn't get through.  The guy thanked me and walked away.  Twenty minutes later I saw him walking back through the park with a child.  We smiled at each other and he faded into the crowd.

After about two hours it seemed safe enough to return to the apartment.  Plus it had started to rain lightly. The apartment caretaker told all of the tenants it was safe to enter.  Everything was working: gas, electricity, hard wired phones and the internet.  That's how I finally found out Russell was OK two and a half hours after the quake.  We posted back and forth to each other on Facebook.


I spent the next three hours skyping with my sister who lives in Huntington Beach.  I was surprised she was even awake as it was after 10p on Thursday night there.  Turns out she had been waiting up so she could purchase the Apple i-Pad 2 when it went on sale at 1am.  She'd been trying to reach me for hours.
She stayed with me while aftershock after aftershock rolled through.  I juggled several open windows on my computer responding to friends heartfelt appeals and tracking Russell's progress home.    I realized my sister was no longer responding to my comments.  I pulled up the skype screen and discovered Christy had fallen asleep.  She'd fallen asleep with the computer on her lap - the camera perfectly framing her sleeping face, her mouth dropped open.  It was hilarious and a laugh I really needed.  I hung up.


I opened a bottle of wine.  I decided if this was going to be my last night, I'm going for the good stuff, and opened a coveted bottle of Mer Soleil and treated myself to a second Milano cookie.  What the hell. 


 The landlord called to make sure we were ok and there were no issues with the apartment.  Imagine that happening in L.A.?  Russell and his associate, actually Cindy a friend of ours who works with Russell and lives in Sydney, arrived at the apartment around 11:30pm.    I made them cheese and crackers and we drank two bottles of really good wine.  Can you say surreal?  Dinner at 1am was huevos rancheros.
Around 2:30am we managed to go to sleep, kind of. 


The hard part after the quake is dealing with the after shocks which seem to be averaging in the sixes.  These are large quakes in their own right.  The outreach of our friends and families is really amazing. 
We feel so blessed.


The main area of destruction is about 230 miles north of Tokyo in a rural area.  Unfortunately CNN and the other newscasts are making it seem like all Tokyo is devastated. That is not true.  It is amazing how well Tokyo is doing. No buildings have collapsed.  There's no looting and there's only a small amount of homes without electricity. Somebody should be talking about how horrible it would have been if this happened in L.A.  


Our thoughts are with those closer to the epicenter - that devastation cannot be underestimated or underplayed.  But for the sake of those people who have relatives or friends in Tokyo proper, they should do a better job demonstrating just how amazing Tokyo's earthquake preparedness is.
I think it's irresponsible to sensationalize a disaster that needs no embellishment.

Today, the day after, most restaurants and grocery stores in Tokyo are open, although a lot of shelves are empty.  The trains aren't running but buses and taxis are.  People are walking around with dazed expressions and sympathetic smiles for everyone but they're alive.  I'm alive.  Russell and Ranger are alive and we're together.  I survived the worst earthquake in Japan's history.  I survived an 8.9 earthquake, the Big One.

I still can't believe it.