He was far enough away from the epicentre, but it was still a scary situation, no matter where you were on the island of Japan last Friday afternoon.
The well documented 9.0 (Richter scale) level earthquake and the ensuing tsunami have killed an estimated 10,000 or more people and sent countless thousands more to hospital. Former Estevanite Jamie Dupuis, who is one of about 11,000 Canadians employed in that country, said it was enough to rattle him even though he is located far enough inland to not have to witness the full brunt of the dual attack from Mother Nature.
Dupuis, along with another ex-Estevanite Aaron Dobrescu, teaches in Japan. He told his mother, Audrey and sister, Kristin of Estevan that he was in the middle of a classroom presentation last Friday afternoon when the walls began to shake and the classroom items started to roll off the desks and shelves.
It was around 2:20 in the afternoon, he said from his home in Kawasaki, a city located between two major cities, Tokyo and Yokahama.
The young people under his care took the earthquake event pretty well in stride, even though it was much more intense than any previous incidents. Japanese are quite accustomed to experiencing earthquakes that occur with regularity.
But this one was different ... very different.
Dupuis said he lives too far inland to have been affected by the disastrous tsunami waves that reached nine to 10 metres in height at their peak as they rolled into shore from the northeast, downing seven nuclear reactor power stations in the process. That led to new fears of a potential nuclear meltdown in at least two or three of the stations that couldn't be completely shutdown effectively due to the blast and the waves of water.
"The kids took it in stride ... did what they usually do for an earthquake drill. It was the parents who were really scared," Dupuis told his mother after the school had been evacuated safely. The facility, which was fairly new, was built to withstand typical earthquake shocks and withstood the Friday blast relatively unscathed while Dupuis' apartment suffered some interior and exterior damages.
"It was scary, but the kids got their gear on and behaved the way they were taught. They weren't frightened, they responded the right way," he explained.
The rolling and rocking that went on for about five minutes, which is unusual for earthquake events that usually last less than a minute, was compared with the motion one might experience aboard a large ship in very rough waters, Dupuis said.
But again, that was well inland.
Trying to make his way home was a bit of an experience, he said. He made several stops along the way and had to make most of his way on foot since all train services, the main form of intra-city transportation, were down.
He explained that he walked a lot, took a couple of breaks, including a visit to a pub that was open, where he enjoyed a beer with a visiting German tourist before making his way home.
Dupuis' sister spent most of Friday attempting to make contact with him and finally succeeded late in the day, or mid-day Saturday in Canada. She has since been informed that his teaching partner, Dobrescu, is also safe.
Dupuis and his fiancée Momoko Tonaka, who are to be married on March 21, made a shopping trip on Sunday to stock up on water, Gatorade and yes, a few extra bottles of beer, to enable everyone to wait out the impending shortages. Apparently the basic food supplies were already on hand.
"He told me it was rather ironic that both he and Aaron were supposed to be in Sundai (the epicentre of the earthquake and tsunami) that day for some additional curriculum training sessions, but they changed their plans to take in a session in Osaka later, so I guess it's just fate or luck of the draw," Kristin said.
"Friday sucked, let's put it that way. We knew communication was probably going to be intermittent and when I got through, I don't think Jamie really realized the full level of the disaster until he got a chance to see it all on television like we were seeing it here," she said in conclusion.
