After the Earthquake – Part 3

This is an archive post from my old blog. I’ve put this series here for others that may still be interested and so that I don’t forget…

Wednesday 16^th March – Day five

As I opened my eyes this morning all seemed calm. It could have been a normal day until I remembered where I was and that constant feeling of fear kicked in again. I think that’s the most difficult thing to live with at the moment.

I turned on the TV to see where reactor roulette had taken us today. Another fire at reactor four, the second in two days. Sometime later they said it was under control – their logic here was that they stopped seeing smoke so that meant it was under control, until of course the smoke came back.

I turned the TV off. This constant stream of non-news, speculation, guesswork and more speculation was not doing much for my sanity, I told myself I’d start my own news stream in my head telling me that everything is going to be alright, it seemed as good a stream to listen to as any.

I put on some music, I needed an anchor, something to relax me. It worked for a while until my wife came and told me that the smoke thought to be coming from reactor no. 4 was actually coming from reactor no. 3. The reactor roulette wheel still had quite a few tricks up its sleeve.

I decided to call a mate of mine up in Chiba. I had spoken to him a couple of days ago and he seemed quite upbeat about stuff. Speaking to him then had made me feel better. I thought it would help now. When he answered he was at the airport. I’m beginning to think that we should be heading there too. I started my ‘it’s gonna be alright’ news stream in my head again, there didn’t seem to be anything else that I could rely on.

My wife is trying to stay upbeat, but she’s doing all the things she does when she’s nervous…

I will continue with more news from today with another update later, but here is a flashback to some of the events of day two to help you catch up. My mind is getting a bit hazy because all of the past days seem to merge into one but I will do these flashbacks when I can.

Saturday 12^th March 2011 – Day one

I slept on the sofa because to be honest I wanted to be close to the door in case I have to make a hasty exit, and also I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to sleep. My wife had to sleep in her office, as she was unable to make it home. I had reruns of Star Trek Next Generation running in the background – I figured I would get as escapist as possible, but to be honest the amount of problems they had with their warp drive let me to the conclusion that future will be as messed up at the present so I turned it off.

Aftershocks happened frequently throughout the night so at times it felt more like a waterbed than a sofa. It was difficult to sleep after each one because there was always a feeling that there could another big one. I called my wife every few hours to make sure she was OK. She said that she had motion sickness because the building had been swaying so much with the big earthquake and aftershocks – it was no slumber party on the 24^th floor.

In the morning she managed to get back, once transport was running again. I was so relieved to see her, at times like these you want your loved ones close. We watched the images of the Tsunami playing endlessly on TV, even now it was difficult to comprehend the scale of everything.