Earthquake

Two days  ago, I experienced the most frightening experience in my life. A 9.0 earthquake hit Japan on a massive scale and caused tsunamis that resulted in massive destruction to entire cities in the country.

I was on my computer working when suddenly the room started to gently sway. Although we have many earthquakes in Tokyo that we can feel, this somehow felt different. Just as a precautionary measure, I grabbed my dog and went under the dining room table for protection thinking this was just another earthquake. Thinking this way for about 3 more seconds, it started to sway harder. I got a bit scared but just thought that it was bigger than usual, but it should stop soon. The second I thought that, it started to violently shake and vibrate with incredible intensity. I could not stand up at that point and I that things started to fall all around me. Tables and chairs in my room started to shift and it just would not stop. At this point I thought that this is it...the big one...and I will die in this earthquake. After a few minutes, it stopped with only the building swaying from right to left like a yo-yo. Yes it actually felt like my building was going to topple over. My mind started going into survival mode and I grabbed my backpack and put a bottle of water inside along with my wallet and key. I threw on whatever lay around me and left my apartment. At this time, the building was still moving a bit and elevators were not working. I walked down the stairs with dog in hand and probably was in some sort of panic because I could hear myself breathing hard. Once downstairs, some other residents were there and we all tried to figure out what we needed to do. Was it safer outside or inside?

I decided I would go to the nearest evacuation shelter, which is a school near my apartment. On the way, the earth kept swaying and shaking with aftershocks and I would stop everytime this happened. I looked around me and saw all the dangerous things that could come falling down on me. As I looked down the street, I saw a crowd of people standing around the electronics store. They were watching television that was playing in the store window. That is when we first started to see the disaster unfolding. Newscasters were in panic mode as well as everyone else. Tsunami warnings were released almost immediately. Warnings of aftershocks were announced and told to protect ourselves from harm. People around were wondering if they should go back home or go to shelters. Phones were instantly jammed and I could not get a hold of anyone. I decided if I was going to go back home, it was now before another tremor. It was very cold outside and I was starting to shiver. I had to get something warmer to wear.

I slowly went back to my apartment and found my place an absolute mess. However I just wanted to make sure that my dog and I could survive for a few days so I put some extra clothes in my backpack and put on some warmer clothes including some gloves. I went out again and sat on a bench at the park with my dog. I realized after an hour that I was getting cold. I saw my next door neighbor walking by and she said that it should be safe inside our aparment so I decided to take her advice.

Inside my apartment, stories of the tsunamis and aftershocks continued on every single channel. My partner finally got in touch with me at around 7pm and told me that everything should be fine inside the apartment but he won't be able to come home because the trains were not running. The entire transportation network came to a halt in Tokyo and the streets were bumper to bumper with cars. Stores were running out of food and long lines out of every convenience store that was opened. The first night was spent not being able to sleep because of the non-stop earthquake warnings to my cell phone.

Morning came and my boyfriend came home with the first train to change clothes. He had to leave right away as he works for the electric company. Things were not good. I asked him when he would be home and he said that he probably wouldn't be able to until things are better. I stayed in my apartment all day and watched the news to see things getting worse. I was having panic attacks. I got in touch with friends who were on skype or facebook. I felt a little better and decided that I need to sleep if I was to have enough energy in case things do get worse. My partner was working his ass off. People were dying. I wanted to be strong for all those that were in more difficult situations. So I took slept and tried to ignore the earthquake warning signals beeping from my phone. I figured I will wake up if it starts to shake violently again. I slept better.

Sunday morning was day 3 since the earthquake. Woke up to news that after careful investigation, we should expect strong aftershocks of 7 for the next 3 days. In fact there is a 70% chance of a level 7 aftershock happening so we must be prepared. We also had news that after one of the nuclear reactors exploded yesterday, the others are also now inoperable. Early evening, news of very low energy reserves come in. We have to preserve as much energy as possible. Later, we are told starting tomorrow, we will have staggered blackouts starting tomorrow from 6am to 10pm. The Electric Company says that they are very low on energy and if we don't take these measures, we will have a countrywide blackout. This is inconvenient but necessary. Aftershocks are less now. However the news says that strong aftershocks will most likely happen.

I called my mother in Hawaii and she refuses to watch the news on television because she is scared. I'm glad my mother was not here while this happened. She would definitely have panicked.

It's so hard to believe that this is actually happening. I knew a big earthquake was bound to happen here in Tokyo. Never did I think I would experience it in my lifetime.