The Big One?
Around 14:45 on Friday 11th March a powerful earthquake struck about 150km off the north-east coast of Honshu (Japan’s main island). I was in our office in Shinagawa, Tokyo, at the time.
In the six odd years I’ve lived here I have experienced countless moderate earthquakes and tremors. On average you could feel about ten per year. Normally they might last 15–30 seconds. What you feel depends very much on where you are and what you are doing. Lying in bed you might feel a very minor one but if you were out jogging you could be unaware of a much stronger one.
I think this one wouldn’t matter what you were doing or where you were. It was very strong.
It started the usual way. A gentle shake in the house where our office is. Then the shaking just kept on building and building. We realised it was a big one we started to make our way to the door and onto the small street beside the office. No time to put on shoes. It seemed to last for 3–4 minutes but felt like ages. There are different opinions of what’s best to do during an earthquake, but getting outside — fast — seemed to make sense to us. One concern is power cables which are mostly above ground in Japan. They were swaying quite violently but didn’t break. After the quake subsided all that was shaking was each of us. We were all a bit rattled by it. We returned to the office only to run back out 4-5 times as each strong aftershock struck.
All the trains were stopped. Most of us waited in the office for a while to hear what was happening. We decided to open a bottle of wine which was a great idea. Some colleagues went to the nearest shop to pick-up what ever scraps of food remained. I phoned home (7:00 GMT) to ask Dad if he had heard about the earthquake. He said he read something about it a few days ago. That was a quite strong one that struck off the north west coast which didn’t do any damage and wasn’t felt in Tokyo. I told him we were ok and he would be hearing lots more about the big one when he turned on the news.
Eiko (my wife) was also working at the time. Her office is on the 11th floor of a large building in Yokohama. Trying to contact her, or anyone, by mobile was impossible. After about an hour she got through to me from a landline to let me know she was ok. They were told the building was quite strong and they didn’t need to go outside. Shortly after they were told they could make there way home. About a 15km walk for her.
I had run to work (11km) that morning and when I heard the trains weren’t going to run until Saturday I decided to put my damp and stinking gear back on and run home. The roads were jammed, as were the footpaths. I took my time and as few risks as possible and got home after about an hour. As I crossed the big bridge near out apartment, in the distance I could see the flames of a large fire at a petrochemical plant near the coast.
When I got back to the apartment there wasn’t any major damage but there was plenty of evidence of the quake. A hard-disk, some jars and books on the floor. We were fortunate. We had power and the internet, but the gas had been automatically shut off as a precaution. It’s working now.
One of the main concerns now is with some of the nuclear facilities around Miyagi and Fukushima (300km from here). They are having difficulty cooling the reactors. The TV broadcasts asked people to minimise the electricity they are using, turn off electric heaters etc the reduce the load on the grid.
Many people — me included at times — can be quite critical of the general state of the appearance of Japanese buildings. But the fact that there was so little physical damage around Tokyo is testament that they are built to withstand some savage forces. They sway and they bend but that’s the way they are designed. I understand the lack of attractive brick buildings in Japan is probably with good reason.
As I type this now, about 24hrs later, there are still moderate tremors about every 15 minutes. Normally after an earthquake of this magnitude they expect occasional strong aftershocks. These can sometimes happen up to a year after the initial one.
So in closing, we’re fine and everyone we know here is fine too. It seems the real damage done in the north-east was more due to the tsunami that the earthquake. All the TV channels are giving constant reports on the fatalities and missing. As I’m sure you will see yourselves the destruction is pretty staggering.
I learnt a new word today “ちびった” − chi-bi-tta – basically means almost wetting yourself with fear.
So was it the Big One? I hope so.
