sendai earthquake: my friend (not me) giving an account of earthquake in sendai

Shake Rattle and Roll

an account

Thu, March 10th about 22:00I took this picture as a “before” shot to

post online. I was going to shave my head and beard for

www.stbaldricks.org the following Friday.

Fri, March 11th about 08:00I arrive at school. The next day

would have been the graduation ceremony for the third graders.

Fri, March 11th about 14:46A magnitude 8.9 earthquake hits

Sendai city, Miyagi Prefecture, the nearest city to the epicentre of the

quake in Iwate Prefecture.

We evacuate the students to the sport ground, but a blizzard soon follows. It becomes unbearably cold outside, so we send them

home.

Chaos.Animals escape from broken homes and as we assess the damage to the

school building, I find this dog running flat-out into a wall.

It was completely blind. It wouldn’t let me get near it. There was nothing I

could do. I took a picture in case someone came looking for it.

Fri, March 11th about 15:30

After tremors. Note the perfect waves in the pool.

Fri, March 11th about 16:00I am instructed to go home and

make sure that all electrical appliances are disconnected, and that all gas and water faucets are

closed.Fire is now the greatest concern.

Fri, March 11th about 18:00Back at the school, we prepare dinner. Each school is equipped

with Alpha Mai, a fortified rice and seaweed mix. Just add boiling

water.There was some emergency water with the Alpha Mai, but not nearly

enough.

We watch the ocean in shifts for signs of the tsunami. There is no

way to know when or where it will hit, as we have no contact with

anyone.

Kerosene stoves keep us warm and boil the water for the Alpha Mai.

Every teacher watches over a stove. After tremors shake the

ground constantly, and if one of these fall over, it could start a fire.

Alpha Mai

Sat, March 12th MorningWater is a problem. I am asked to

help find a way to open the reserve tank on the roof of the

Southern Building.

We push all the buttons, to no avail. In the end, I grab a wrench

and open the flood valve manually.

Water is bucketed in from the pool to wash things with and to flush

the toilets.

Kerosene tanks.

Sat, March 12th 11:00We carry about 60 Judo mats from the

Kendo gym into the main gym.There is still no way to contact anyone.

The whole city is without electricity. Dinner and breakfast finished off half of the Alpha Mai. People come to ask for food, but we have nothing to give; only enough for the evacuees in the

gym.

Evacuees start pouring into the gym.

There were 16 people on the first day, 170 on the second.

Sat, March 12th About 14:00We make sure the fire doors work and

take all fire hoses from their cases.

Sat, March 12th About 15:00I slip away and scour the neighborhood for

food.

From city to ghost town in 24 hours.

Sat, March 12th EveningWe listen to a battery powered

radio for any news. We hear about the tsunami in Kesenuma and the reactor explosions in Fukushima, our neighboring prefecture, and

we count ourselves lucky, very very lucky.

Sun, March 13th MorningI spent the night at a fellow teacher’s

apartment. We woke early to queue at open shopping malls. You can only buy five items at a time. If this were South Africa, these places would have been

looted and pillaged by now, but all the staff were there, on duty, smiling.

Mon, March 14th MorningWe start cleaning the school.

And fixing what we can.

We open the latter of the two water reserves.

Teachers gather herbs for lunch.