Thirteen Years Since 3.11.11

I've already told you too many times about what happened 13 years ago today. I'm sure I have already explained that I was at work in an office building in Sendai when the ground started shaking, and how the rest of that afternoon went, and how one miraculous phone call finally went through to my then-boyfriend, now-husband letting him know where I was so he could pick me up.

Instead of reliving the past today, I took advantage of the good weather and appropriate timing and walked over to Shiogama's Tsunami Evacuation Center which is located right next to Marine Gate, the ferry port.

The building is nice and new with stairs and an elevator on the first floor which seems to act mostly as a parking lot. The second floor houses the exhibit which is a series of well made informative posters with pictures, explaining what happened on each day of the week after the quake including statistics like how many people were still under excavation orders and the deployment of the Self Defence Forces as well as information about the condition of the city at the time with pictures. 

All of this is in Japanese, but translator apps on smart phones can make up for that.

In addition, there is information about what to do in case of these kinds of emergencies and a space for meetings.

If you move to the east side of Tohoku, please visit one of these places to get a better grasp of what everyone you meet there has been through at least to some degree. Anyone who lived through March 11, 2011 in Tohoku lost something, and some lost it all. 

One room has pictures that go into more detail.

Even if you never step foot in Tohoku, do yourself a favor today and look up the guidelines for where you need to evacuate to in the case of a major quake or tsunami in your area of Japan. As we learned on January 1st of this year, big quakes can happen anywhere in Japan and the resulting tsunamis can hit anywhere along the coast.

Stay safe