7.4 Aftershock

Last night, as we were falling asleep, the room began to vibrate.  Then it juttered.  We followed our new emergency plan: rolling off the bed and pulling the mattress over us.  After several seconds of juttering, the swaying began.  The room--actually the whole northeastern region of Japan--swayed for about a minute.

When we got off the floor, the power was out.  Kelli and our neighbor went to check on some friends.  I filled our tub with water, filled water bottles, and turned off the gas.

We lost power for about 19 hours.  We didn't lose water, but parts of our town did.  This aftershock damaged our area much more than the main quake.  The bridges that suddenly had large bumps on either side after the big earthquake now had broken pavement on either end.  Part of the main highway collapsed with the hillside a few miles from our home.  The roads in some neighborhoods cracked open.  Some bridges are closed.

This aftershock worried us more too.  Will there be a tsunami?  Will Fukushima Daiichi get swamped or cracked?  If it did, how long will it take for the radiation to blow our direction?  There was no way of knowing without electricity.

After unwinding, we flopped our mattress back onto the bed and then we flopped onto the mattress.  Today we carried on as if everything was normal, except the power outage.  We taught classes and went to meetings.

When the power came on, we watched the news.

over 4 million homes are without power.  In Sendai, many homes got their gas reconnected two days ago, only to lose it again.  Many homes got water back yesterday, only to lose it again when the pumps lost power last night.  Just as things were coming back for many people, they were stolen away again.

Hokkaido, the large northern island was supplying a lot of electricity to our region via an undersea cable.  The cable lost power and they still don't know why.

Fishermen in Ishinomaki were discussing what to do with the thousands of pounds of fish that had been ready to vacuum package before the quake a month ago.  The fishermen will be payed to take the rotten fish 90km off the coast and dump it into the sea.

One woman in here 70s died from the aftershock yesterday when the blackout shut off her ventilator.  There was an oxygen bottle for emergency use in her room, but there was no sign that anyone had tried to use it.

The most shocking news was that many hospitals have few or no full time doctors.  Many doctors abandoned their posts and their patients after the quake. 

Some doctors are trying to help those hospitals by visiting on a rotating basis from their home hospitals.  One badly damaged hospital in Kesennuma is being run by the nurses, who refused to leave the patients.  The number cards for patients waiting for help are hand-written on cardboard.  The first floor was flooded by the tsunami, destroying CAT scanners, x-ray machines, and the computers with patient files.  The old paper files were caked with mud.  The hospital still doesn't have water.  Each day a delivery truck fills lined trash cans with water and the nurses carry them upstairs.  They are exhausted, physically and mentally, but they haven't quit.  And more patients keep coming.

And that was the news.

Things aren't good.  Sure, our area seems fine, but people all around us are suffering.  I've met people who lost neighbors and houses.  People are working hard and getting tired.

Just as you begin to feel comfortable again, the aftershocks start back up.  The USGS summary of aftershocks isn't very encouraging.  There are statistical patterns to aftershocks, but each quake and it's aftershocks are random.  All you can do is stay prepared and wait.

One preparation we can tackle is to get all the required tools and clothing to volunteer.  We'll get steel lined boots and water-proof gear and get ready to go.  We want to help.