I was chatting with a friend when the earthquake struck. At first I thought it was one of those “regular” earthquakes. But this time, it lasted quite long. Long enough for me to type a couple of extra messages before power went out. That was when I was disconnected. At times like these, it pays to be using a portable computer, like a MacBook Air. Didn’t lose any data.
This earthquake was huge! A brutal M8.8! It struck off the coast of northern Honshu, near Sendai. Massive tsunamis as tall as 10m followed the earthquake. The tsunami left properties destroyed and swept away everything. Houses-cars-ships, anything that can be swept away was swept away. I saw houses submerged underwater, huge ships being swept ashore by the waves. It was very surreal.
When it was safe to leave, I left work for home and checked on my neighbors. It was a good thing I could still get information about the earthquake via 3G on my iPhone. Twitter was awesome too. Could read friends’ feeds and find out that they are also fine.
There was no power, I resorted to staying in my car, watching TV and keeping warm. Managed to get some supplies from home as well as additional rations from 7-11. Was getting ready to camp in the car if power couldn’t be restored tonight. It has since been restored in my neighborhood.
Trains weren’t running, bicycles sold like hot cakes and many people were looking at renting cars to get home. It’s really cold tonight. I hope everyone has a place to keep warm. Earthquake, tsunami, fire, cold weather. It’s the pits.
Everyone is behaving very ordering. There’s no looting nor is there any sort of bad behavior. I think this is something that we all can learn from the Japanese. Emergency workers must be working hard. Let’s pray that they can get to everyone who needs their help.
