The Earthquake

Hey, everyone.  We're okay. It's 3:15 now, so don't consider this a news update.

Our area wasn't as hard hit as places as little as 20km south.  As soon as the quake hit, the power was out, so we didn't even know how bad things were.  Late Saturday night we saw newspaper pictures from the coast...

I'm sure to many of you, the names of Ofunato, Hachinohe, and others are just images or news videos of places with names that are hard to pronounce.  To us, those are places we've been, the homes of teachers' families.  I've fished in Ofunato.  The videos you see of a harbor surrounded by rubble are places I've driven through.

The video of Sendai airport's runway being flooded by a tsunami might seem terrible to see, but we landed on that runway.

In the time it has taken to write these few sentences, we've felt two more aftershocks, 48 hours after the first quake.  We have power and internet.  We never lost water.  Meanwhile, entire towns were being swept away.

Nuclear power plants are damaged and in danger of melting down.  Another strong aftershock could hit any time.  Right now life is a strange balance of routine and troubling potential.  We went to the grocery store to stock up on food in case we need it.  Part of me was interested to see what people had bought (there was no instant ramen or soup mix, but lots of cookies and chips were still on the shelves).  Iin the grocery store, ceiling tiles and a few lights had fallen.  The lady asked us if we had our point card.

I'm not sure what to write right now, and I'm pretty distracted, so I won't ramble.

If you are wondering how you can help, I would ask you to think of all the major disasters in the past decade.  This level of disaster doesn't get better with a one time donation or visit.  As you see what is happening in Japan, don't forget Haiti and Indonesia, where the government wasn't as well prepared.  There economies--and much more importantly--their people still need help.  Don't forget them.

As far as helping Japan, I have no idea.  I've seen Red Cross vehicles on the roads, so if you contact the American Red Cross, maybe they can help direct you.

Thank you for the concern and the prayers.