K.C.
I grew up there. My parents, brother and his wife, my niece and nephew still live there. As do many, many friends. Everyone I know and love have been accounted for, thankfully, but the devastation is severe and they are all in shock. I can't tear myself away from all the images and video footage and am just overcome with grief for all the lives lost. My parents live in Kobe, which is far enough away from yesterday's earthquake that they just felt some minor swaying. But they lived through the major Kobe earthquake of '95. There's a special sort of panic involved with getting a call in the middle of the night from thousands of miles away telling you there's been an earthquake. In Japan, earthquakes are common enough, but there's alway the chance of "the big one" and for those of us who have loved ones over there, the early hours of today were terrifying, not knowing for sure if everyone we know was safe. I woke up to an email from my dad with "earthquake" in the subject line. Remembering the Kobe earthquake, and how I couldn't get through to my parents for DAYS, it immediately brought back all sorts of panicky feelings, until I read the email saying they were fine. This is devastating, but Japan is strong, the people are strong, they will over come this tragedy even while grieving for the lost.
