Such crazy crazy stories! Truly miraculous-so miraculous that those who have lived them wonder "Why?!!" "Why am I alive-there must be some reason I am left here... what is it?" Having seen literally thousands of mutilated cars and buildings,twisted steel beams mountains of rubble, uprooted trees ramrodded into things,massive cement sea walls toppled over, massive buildings totally gutted, train tracks ripped up and twisted, charred remains of cars- boats -buildings, along with slimy mud and sand, it seems impossible that anyone could live through it once caught in the water but God did give thousands of people a miraculous deliverance.
Mr. U could hear the sirens blaring and the loudspeakers saying a big tsunami is coming. Many people debated running because often the tsunami warnings result in a barely noticeable rise in the water. Not every town announced it the same but for one town adding the word 'big' saved lives. Mr. U's wife became restless waiting for him (he was trying to save 10 years of research work on a USB stick). Mrs.U called up the stairs,"I'm leaving first. Don't forget to bring the dog". She left the house only to discover the tsunami soon to be upon her. She ran to the steel stairs that go up over the road with the water coming up to her knees as she climbed them, Although she was now above the water that was rushing in, the overhead walkway would sway one direction, and as it started to go back to sea it swayed the other direction, and with the next tsunami it swayed in again-back and forth with each successive wave. Meanwhile she looked towards her house with her husband still in it. The tsunami lifted it off the foundation and moved it 300 meters without it falling over. Mr. U was still in the second floor floating towards other houses realizing it could crumble at any moment and fires were breaking out all around him. He looked for other options. Nearby was a steel framed house with a second floor veranda that he decided to try to get to. He tucked the dog under his arm and grabbed onto the hard plastic sleeve covering an overhead wire. As he dangled from the wire he wiggled his weight so that he could inch across the wire to the other house's second floor. He got inside as the next tsunami hit and the water rose higher than the first. As water flooded the second floor he climbed up on the highest thing he could find (still with the dog under his arm) and started pounding on the ceiling with his fist. He takes a moment to show me his knuckles which had begun healing but I could still see where they had split open. He opened a small hole into the attic space and since the water was now up to inches from the ceiling would pull himself and the dog up at intervals for gasps of attic air while still trying to hang on. The floating rubble was burning and people's gas cylinders started exploding around him . By now his wife from her vantage point was sure that if he hadn't drowned he had burned to death. The burning rubble sloshed back and forth-it took awhile for the water to totally recede.Firemen who were on firmer ground looked for people who were close enough for them to rescue from "shore". They rescued Mrs U and whisked her off to a shelter. Soaking wet Mr U was still a bit too far for the firemen to reach. That night after the water had receded he managed to climb to the roof of another building to which the firemen were able to extend a ladder and rescued h.His wife was shocked that he had actually survived and they had a tearful reunion.
Mrs. D escaped with her dog who she tenderly cuddles on her lap or in turn on the table(!). She opens a coffee creamer which her dog enjoys with relish. I wonder whether the dog has an even more special place in her life after surviving with her and comforting when she remembers the terror of her ordeal. She said,"I was born and raised by the sea but I never want to see it again!" She speaks with a sense of deep betrayal. It reminds me of what someone spray painted on the remains of their destroyed house,"Ocean I hate you but house I loved you. Thank you for being such a nice home to us..." Mrs. D proceeds to tell us of her daughter's escape while it pours rain on our Cafe tents. Her daughter worked in a dentist office in Unosumai. Somehow most of the others who worked there managed to get on the roof but she was in the water. Her coworkers managed to reach over and desperately grab to retrieve her-they caught her by the shirt and pulled her onto the roof. They waited for the water to subside but they were missing one of their coworkers. They called and called starting to look in the rubble but had to abandon searching for her because fires started breaking out around them. Soaking wet they picked their way through the slimy rubble and headed for the mountains. They climbed the mountains to head for a shelter. Her daughter got sick. Relatives who still had a house took her in to nurse her back to health. It took her a couple of weeks to get all the sand and mud off her body-out of her ears etc..We are amazed that people are so willing to sit in the rain with us so they can talk with us. Wet story on a wet day but the dampness does not lessen the intensity with which it is told...
Granny and her friend "Me Chan" with sirens blaring headed together for the stairs up the hill side. A shrine up above was a designated "safe" spot. At the bottom of the stairs was a Buddhist temple with a graveyard on the slope behind it. Before they got to the stairs, as they passed the temple the tsunami hit them. Instinctively they held their breaths as they were blasted into the temple in black churning water. As Granny was tumbled over and over under the water she thought,"This is the end! I can't hold my breath any longer!” Just then the water receded. Granny, rather disoriented, looked about to discover herself by the toppled over alter sitting in the black slime. "Me Chan? You there?" "I'm here". Both quite disoriented and with no idea of the magnitude of what had just happened stumbled outside to the back of the temple and into the graveyard. Not steady on their feet but concerned about their muddy condition Granny said,"I really think we need to stop by my sister's place and get some dry clothes." They tottered around to where the stairs were and looked back toward town. Suddenly she realized how absurd what she had just said was. It was no time to go back for clothes-town was gone! They climbed the hillside steps as the earth continued to quake escaping subsequent waves. Granny thought it was the end but has lived to tell her story and we are praying that her next chapter will be about the miracle of meeting Jesus,receiving eternal life. Odds may be crazy with long rooted traditions and so few Christians but against the odds God rescued her in the tsunami longing to see him rescue you her for eternity.
Mr. T had been out to town and back to his home where he lived alone. When he realized the tsunami may come he got in his car to drive away. He lived behind a 6.5 meter seawall which ended up being pitifully lacking in comparison to the 25?meters that came in. Mr. T's car began to float. (The first wave was not the biggest and depending on the location some places before the first wave could pull back the next wave came and pushed the height even higher). He decided to get out of his car and go in his house. he got wet as he abandoned his car. He went in his house and pulled off his wet pants-only to look and see a giant wall of water coming at his house. His house crumpled on top of him and knocked him out. He was covered by the rubble of his house and water but amazingly did not breathe under water though he was knocked out. He came to to discover himself trapped under the water but with a small opening in the rubble above him. As he fought to free himself he took in some black sordid water which made his belly swell. He forced it out of himself so he could pull himself through the small hole in the rubble. Again he threw up the foul water and proceeded to pick his way through the rubble with his broken ribs and bleeding head. He noticed someone else sitting dazed in the rubble. He slapped their face on the way by so they would come to enough to try to escape. It took him a long time to work his way but at last he made it to a neighbors house who lived up the side of the inlet. They peeled his wet clothes off and tried to warm his hands with the remains of warm water from a hot pot. The electricity was gone so they could light no stoves. The roads were covered with rubble so there was no way to get him to a hospital for a few days. The doctors were amazed he did not breathe automatically when he was knocked out and under the water. He is 77. "I lost everything. I traveled the world on a fishing boat before I married and had so many things from the different places. It is all gone. All I have is my memories." As we sit he calls out to others to join us at the cafe. An old time friend says to him,"I heard you are alive! I don't understand how you survived..." Mr. T begins his story again to tell in detail his miraculous story.
Mr. and Mrs. K , who lived near the Kamaishi city office, were in their house when the earthquake happened. With the sound of sirens and warnings blaring Mr. K stepped out into the street to see the situation. At his feet he noticed water running and looked up to see a mass of water and rubble heading his way he stepped back just in time as it pushed by (I think their house was initially protected from the bulldozer effect by a hill that stuck out between them and the sea).But immediately the water level rose.He grabbed onto a floating car and from there was able to get onto the roof of his one story house. His wife was trying to keep afloat. He managed to pull his wife onto the roof with him. Meanwhile the water started depositing cars on the roof with them-one car falling onto Mrs K's foot and breaking some bones in her foot. The house lifted and started floating towards the neighbors house. It got close enough for them to climb from the roof of their house into the second floor veranda. The earthquake had shaken the locks open. Soaking wet and very cold they went in and found their neighbors clothes. Though the first floor was destroyed the second floor was dry. Mr K did not care that the clothes were a plump woman's clothes-they were dry! Wearing their neighbors clothes when the waters receded they picked their way through the rubble to find a shelter.
With a house close to the water in Kamaishi, Mr. Sailor had special responsibility for such a time as this. He was designated to close the water gate on the seawall near his house. As he closed the gate he realized the tsunami was going to go right over the seawall and gate so he started running towards the back of his house. He knew there was a hill with a wire fence at the base of it. He was hoping the water would float him towards the hill. His neighbor came out screaming "Help me! Help me!". Mr. Sailor managed to catch her once and as the water carried them together he tried to tell her there was a wire fence below "Put your feet down". He lost hold of her and she slipped under the water. He pulled her up again."Put your feet down!!" They managed to get their feet on the wire mesh and then up to a pipe at the top of the mesh. They clung to the side of the hill with water up to their armpits and their feet on the pipe until the water subsided. Then they got themselves to the shelter. Martin asked Mrs.Sailor "Weren't you worried?!" "No". Perhaps because her husband is a sailor she figured he would know what to do.
Mr. Fireman 1 was on duty further back from the water but never-the-less driving through the streets warning people of the possibility of a tsunami with a loud speaker. Firetrucks in our town warn us each night to turn off our gas. During earthquakes we are also supposed to turn off our gas to prevent fire outbreak. As they were driving through the streets he suddenly realized the tsunami was going to overtake the truck even though they were back from the water front. They jumped out of their truck and started running at full speed. The water reached them but still they fought their way forward eventually freeing themselves from it's clutches. Meanwhile Mr. Fireman's wife and small son were in an 8 floor apartment building at the water front. Steel and cement buildings had their lower floors blasted out of them but managed to keep standing unless plowed over by another floating building or ship. From the upper floor the mother and son could see the huge ocean liner, "Asian Symphony", bouncing on the water until the ropes broke. Kamaishi port is in a narrow bay. The huge ocean liner headed for the comparatively small apartment building. The little boy was terrified but the the next wave took it in the opposite direction but no it headed back toward them! At last as the waters receded it came to rest totally out of the water on the wharf just a few meters from a washed out house. The little boy and his Mom were safe but he still suffers nightmares. Meanwhile the boat owners of the liner refuse to take responsibility to have it cut to pieces to remove it. Larger than life it sits on the sinking wharf. With earthquakes shaking the coastline continually the land has sunk as much as a meter in some places and the streets fill with water during high tide...
Mr. Fireman 2 was off duty at home on March 11. His wife was on duty as a nurse at the Kamaishi hospital. His son was in nursery school. Months before they had their house of a lifetime built for 350,000 dollars. After the earthquake he managed to get out of his house and up on the flat roof of a cement government building. The water raised to within a meter of the roof top. A couple of other people had gotten up to the roof top as well. Water was trapped behind the seawall and could not flow back into the sea for a couple of days. Their they were stuck on top of the roof. They could see across to others stuck on roof tops. Mr. Fireman's wife was being worked off her feet at the hospital with injured people and figured if her husband was alive he would come find her at the hospital. After two days he was rescued by helicopter and taken to the hospital. In their case insurance covers half of their house but they still have to pay 120,000 for a house they don't have. His car was also swept away. They have each other and their jobs much more than many people...
Mr. Fireman 3 had recently been through a drill of what to do in a tsunami. Their squad was down by the water practicing closing the sea wall water gate. After closing the gate during drill the fireman looked out to sea. The sergeant spent the next hour screaming at the men that you don't take time to look because it will cost you your life. You do what you gotta do and run! March 11th came and they did what they had to do and ran without looking back. They lived! I keep thinking of the story of Lot's family in the old testament. The angel told them not to look back. Many people got away from the first wave but were killed in the second because they went back to check on things.
