March 11, 2011 We're OK

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know we are OK over here.

I made it safely home at 10:00 tonight. I was at the aquarium drawing customers when the earthquake hit a little before 3:00 pm. It was pretty scary, but I don't think anyone was hurt. In one part of the aquarium, there were some hanging lights that were swinging and broke against the wall, but other than that I don't think there was much damage. For safety reasons the aquarium was closed at that time. Also all the trains were stopped for the rest of the day. Because of the danger of tsunami, all the aquarium staff had to go to the 3rd floor of a nearby school building. We had to wait there for a few hours. Then everyone had to return to the aquarium to get our things and then go back to the school building. Shortly before 9:00, the aquarium people arranged a shuttle to take staff to a location where they could get home from. In my case I was able to get a bus from the Tsujido station.

There was a slight tsunami in our area. The water flowed backwards from the ocean into the river area. I don't know if it was big enough to cause much damage. I didn't get to see it myself, but I heard it looked pretty strange.

My cell phone and email wasn't connecting properly either.

A lot of things will be closed tomorrow for safety reasons. Especially checking buildings for structural damage.

I was just checking out the TV and I didn't know until now how bad things were in the northern part of the country. I'll be at home tomorrow and looking after my family.

Wow, just felt another aftershock just now.

That's about it for now. Better go.