Heather Latter
After an 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean off northeastern Japan on Friday, spawning a deadly tsunami as well as aftershocks, fires, blackouts, and fears of a nuclear disaster, some local residents were left wondering how their family members living there were doing.
“When I got up Friday morning, I saw lots of e-mail messages and when I opened them, someone was telling me there was bad news in Japan and is your family okay?” recalled Aya Sletmoen, who owns Aya’s Reflexology & Japanese Body Massage here.
“I didn’t know what she was talking about, so I checked the Internet and found out there was an earthquake.”
Then upon watching television reports, Sletmoen learned that Sendai, the largest city in northern Japan and located just 140 km from her hometown, was hit by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
“I immediately called my family, but the phone wasn’t working. I couldn’t get through at all,” she noted.
Luckily, her family had cellphones and while they weren’t able to call, they were able to send out text messages.
“They sent a message to my e-mail address and told me they were at the shelters,” Sletmoen said, adding that’s when she was able to relax a little bit for the first time since hearing the news.
Sletmoen finally was able to speak to her mother on the phone on Sunday.
“I cried and cried,” she admitted. “I’m very lucky in this case.
“I still have a home to go back to.”
Her mother’s house is located just two minutes from the beach, but is situated on a higher area and miraculously wasn’t damaged by the tsunami.
Sletmoen’s sister, who lives about an hour from her mother, also was okay following the twin disasters and was able to go be with their mom.
“When the earthquake happened, my mother had just stepped out from the grocery store and the strong earthquake hit,” she remarked.
“She couldn’t keep standing. She had to hold a telephone pole and she started crying.”
Sletmoen’s mother told her it wasn’t five or 10 seconds, but a long, big shake.
“After the earthquake, she tried to go home but the road was like a snake—it wasn’t flat anymore,” Sletmoen noted.
When she did reach home, her mother heard the tsunami warnings and ran from the area to higher ground, ending up at the shelters.
Sletmoen’s sister also felt the quake from the second floor of the building she was in. She was thrown to the floor.
“She really thought she was going to die—that this was it,” Sletmoen said. “But [she] was able to get out of the building.”
Meanwhile, as explosions continue to rock the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Sletmoen wonders about other relatives and friends living in the area.
“I can’t get a hold of them. I don’t know how to get a hold of them,” she said.
“Right now my big concern is the nuclear plant which is close to my house, too.
“But when these things happen, there is nothing they can do,” she reasoned.
“I’m just very lucky my family is okay.”
Manami Alexander, who works at NCDS here, also has family in Japan, but they live far enough away that they were not seriously affected by Friday’s quake and tsunami.
However, she does have a cousin who works at one of the nuclear power plants near Tokyo. While he and his mom are okay, she said their house was damaged.
Alexander also is worried about friends she has living in the areas that were hit.
“There are no ways to contact people and don’t know how to find out how they are doing,” she lamented.
“I just found out that my close family is okay—that was my main concern.
“I was devastated over how big this disaster got,” she added, having checked out reports and information on the Internet at work Friday morning.
“They prepare for big earthquakes nowadays, but with such a big tsunami, they just couldn’t have done anything,” Alexander said.
“It’s so sad.”
Lyle and Shelley Hyatt of Alberton were worried about their son, Luc, who also lives in Japan.
“I woke up and got a message from my daughter asking if I’d seen the news,” Shelley Hyatt recalled.
She immediately turned on the computer and saw Luc already had left a message saying he didn’t even feel the earthquake as he lives in Nagasaki, about 800 miles from the epicentre.
“As a mom, it can be a scary thought worrying about your child so far away, but we’re happy he’s okay,” she remarked.
Hyatt, Alexander, and Sletmoen all received many messages from friends and community members asking if their family members were all right.
“The whole community is so great,” Alexander lauded. “So many people have offered their concerns and prayers for the families suffering.
“I really appreciate it,” she added. “I sent the prayers we received to my parents and they really appreciate it, too.”
“And I really appreciate that the Canadian government sent help to Japan. That made me cry, too,” echoed Sletmoen.
