An Earthquake in Tokyo

Earthquake emails from my brother in Tokyo.  Times are Central Standard Time.

11:59 PM:  We just had the strongest earthquake I've ever felt.  I figured it

might be the end.

The Lazy-Boy was rocking in the living room like it was a rodeo.

Dressers, desks, pretty much cleared -- although somehow electronics

and my desktop are intact.  Duration: at least one full minute.

Shaking: like I've never felt.

This was as serious an earthquake as you can get without being

absolutely disastrous.

Still shaking, and not mildly …

12:08 AM: 

Obviously I don't feel like I'm in immanent danger, or I probably

would not be writing this.  But we are still shaking perceptibly --

*very* perceptibly, and it's been 18 minutes since the shaking

started.

This is scary stuff -- there are still some strong shakes.  By

strong, I mean the kind that would have scared me a few years ago,

but were nothing compared to what we just experienced.

Glad I got my power walk in already today.  ^^_^^

Telephones appear to be out now, as shaking *still* continues as I

write.

Holy *shit* this is strong.

From my brother Wayne who is still up and living in Naperville, IL: 

10 ft sunami warning for the NE coast.  Could be 20 ft they say.  How high are you?

I see a huge pillar of smoke rising from Tokyo

From Lance in Tokyo, 12:17 AM: 

How strong was it?

Well, when I leave my desk, that's strong.  When I go to the area of

our house where I believe the support beams are strongest, that is

the beginning of scary.

Hell, this sucker doesn't stop!!!

When I get down on my knees, that's when it really gets spooky.  I've

never gotten down on my knees before.  I did this time, and I said,

"Please stop now!"

It didn't.

Aftershocks are rumbling through here like crazy, the one above quite

strong.  But I think the worst is finished -- at least for today.

Shaking again ...  strongly ...

The earth is like Jello.

Obviously, we missed the BIG ONE, for now anyway.  Also obviously, I

don't even appreciate the BIG ONE yet, because this one rocked my

world.

You can get updates at:

(We just had a HUGE aftershock, maybe as big as the first one)

Wayne responds: 

I just watched a live feed on fox news with waves coming ashore (I think) with dozens of cars being swept away in the wave.  They are saying a small 3 ft wave came ashore shortly after the quake hit, but the big wave is still to come.

Lance continues:  It's been 5 minutes at least, enough to call Yuki (his wife) -- she's okay,

although the *IDIOTS* she works with want to evacuate the building.

I told her to let them go -- she is safe where she is, and who knows

what lurks outside.

My triple-monitor display continues to rock.  Telephone wires look

like jump-rope invitations.

Amazingly, it seems no broken windows.  But the floor in my office is

a mess.  The ground is *still* moving, and moving sharply.

From Lance:  Now 2 hours and about 25 minutes later, and we are still getting

rattled by aftershocks that I would have previously called

"earthquakes".

But as I say, we dodged a bullet.  Had this been a bit closer, your

emails would be going unanswered, probably.

My response to my brother the next morning:  I hope this email finds you and Yuki safe and well.

Of all the natural events I have been involved in, earth quakes are the most disconcerting.  The air is supposed to move.  The wind is supposed to blow.  So sometimes it blows too hard and you get a tornado.  But the earth is NOT supposed to move!  It's supposed to be right under you.  When you go up for a rebound it's supposed to be right where you left it when you come back down.  (Actually, I don't go up for rebounds too often any more, but I certainly used to.)

I have been riding a motor scooter for several years now.  I got involved with the scooter when the price of gas last jumped to $4.00 a gallon.  I get 60 mpg on the bike.  So no matter what happens to the price of gas I am in pretty good shape for about eight months out of the year.  But riding the bike has brought me to a new place spiritually when it comes to praying about common, ordinary events.

I noticed I am much more likely to pray for a safe ride to work when I ride the scooter than I am when I drive a car.  And yet driving the car is one of the riskiest things we do.  It's safer than being on the scooter, but it's still a risky thing.  So the bike is dangerous and so is the car, but why did I find myself more likely to pray before I got on the bike?  It was because I was used to the car.  Everyone rides in cars.  Everyone accepts that risk.  And when we accept a risk we stop thinking about it.  And then we stop praying about it.  Which is presumptuous I think.

Several years ago, before I ever bought the scooter, I was driving down to Macomb to pick up Joy and bring her home from college.  It was snowing.  All of a sudden I lost control over my vehicle.  It was spinning like a top and I ended up going off the road backwards.  A split second after I went off the road a semi when right through the space where my van had been spinning at 55 mph.  With that snow on the road there is simply no way he could have stopped in time.  A split second sooner and I could have been broadsided by that truck.

I can't tell you how many times I had driven by people in the ditch during a winter storm and thought to myself, "Well, you just have to know how to drive in bad weather.  Some people just aren't careful enough."  Mr. Smug, who now found himself in a snow bank on the side of the road watching as a semi roared by.

So between that near accident and the scooter I find myself much more conscious of common, ordinary dangers and more likely to pray over such things.  I ask God to protect my family from everything from microbes to meteors.  Once a week I try and pray for everything I might have to worry about.  I ask God to protect us, our property, and our vehicles from disease, accidents, lightning, wind storms, fire, flood, backed up sewers, earthquakes, settleing foundations, meteors, infestations of pests (we have termites in the neighborhood), terrorism, crime, and anything else I haven't thought of.

Basically, on my "everything" prayer day I try to cover everything I might conceivably worry about.  And then I ask God for the gift of His peace.

There are two other steps to this process.  Step two is to turn every worry you have during the week into prayer.  Right now I'm concerned about the country, the debt, and what's going on in the Arab world.  But I'm even more concerned about listening to news without turning that into an occasion for prayer.  I have come to the conclusion that if I listen to too much news and do too little praying that I am just harming my soul.

Step three is to meet each problem as it occurs with prayer and a sense of God's presence and God's provision.  I expect my prayers to work!  I expect that when I get to heaven I will find out that there is a certain amount of grief that I did not experience because I prayed!  But we live in a fallen world and, as a more Christian and classier version of the bumper sticker should say, "The excrement of solid bodily waste is a constant and ongoing part of the process of life."  So when "excrement occurs," how do I respond?  Do I panic or do I respond like someone who believes that God is watching over me and that if something bad happens, then God is right there to help me through it?

I suppose the ideal would probably be something like this.  The house is shaking.  I somehow manage to struggle into my adult undergarment to avoid annoying and embarrassing wet spots on my trousers.  Or if the earthquake is really bad, even more embarrassing brown spots!  Always remember, "the excrement of solid bodily waste is a constant and ongoing part of the process of life."  Then I get under a door frame.  But while I am struggling with the undergarment and getting to the door frame I am praying. 

"Lord, please protect my family and bring us safely through this crises.  Protect our lives and our property.  If we must suffer loss or injury, give us the grace to to respond like sheep who are confident because they know that their Shepherd never leaves them or forsakes them.  And Lord, if this is my time to depart be in your presence in heaven, I welcome that with all my heart."

That, I think, would be the ideal.  Now if you will excuse me, I have to go to the store.  While we literally have cases of them in the garage at work, I just realized  that I have no depends in my home emergency preparedness kit.