15 Years ago at 2.46PM my wife and I were about to finish a kindergarten class with eight 5 and 6 year olds. We were still in the assembly room and as the rattle of the window frames and the rumble of the tremors grew in strength the children instinctively sheltered under the tables we had been using. Several sobbed. He rumble grew in volume as A/C covers swung open and locker shelves shifted. It seemed to last several minutes until we felt able to usher the students out in to the playground. We moved our car into the ground and got as many of them into it out of the cold and away from the risk of falling debris.

The kindergarten is attached to a church and the bell tower was dangerously cracked at the base by the quake. While my wife tried to contact parents due to collect their children after the class, I helped to block the pavement under the tower and then the road in order to prevent cars and pedestrians getting close to the tower. We really didn’t know if it would come tumbling down as after shocks followed.

Mobile phone networks were overwhelmed so we waited with the children until parents managed to reach the kindergarten often on foot. We then drove slowly home, negotiating traffic jams and giving way to emergency vehicles. We reached home at about five and found our fifth floor apartment in chaos. We couldn’t get into the kitchen for fallen shelves. The fridge door was wide open with bottles of sauce on the floor. furniture all over the place. Gas, water and electricity all suspended.

My wife picked up our elder daughter from elementary school where she had been held in the playground. Our younger daughter had been at a cake making class. The teacher cut herself on glass which had crashed to the floor. Another parent took care of our daughter and brought her back to us later that evening.

We spent the night at my brother in law’s place listening to the radio for updates and sleeping fitfully as the tremors returned throughout the night. The next day we set about clearing up and contacting students. We are 100kms from Tokyo and 130kms from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. It was the start of a very anxious few weeks but we were lucky. Almost 16,000 people died and 2,000 are still missing.

#2011earthquake #Japan