Mother Nature

Friday, March 11, 2011 9:00 am

Friday, March 11, 2011 12:00 pm

The snow steadily fell all day Thursday.  It looked like a winter wonderland as I ran errands and took the boys to piano lessons and basketball practice.  As the temperatures dipped lower that night, the snow began to stick and when Rich and I woke up early Friday morning there was a light blanket of snow covering the ground.  As I watched Rich scrape his car for hopefully the last time this winter, I yelled out the door it was hard to believe it was March 11.  As he drove away into the darkness I hoped he'd be safe on the slick roads.  It was a strange beginning to a day where the high would be in the 50's and sun the sun would break through.  I knew it wouldn't be cold for long. In fact, I would have been surprised if the snow hadn't melted by the time the girls were finished with their ballet class that morning.

Mother Nature is like that.  She keeps us on our toes and just when we put the coats and sweaters away, she gives us a surprise.  Little did I know that my little idea about Mother Nature would seem trivial and insignificant just moments later.  While I slept the world was rocked with a massive earthquake in Japan causing extreme damage, enormous loss of life with horrific wide spread destruction. 

As Rich traveled to work, I grabbed the phone to get the news updates from around the world.  My heart stopped when I read that a massive 8.9 earthquake had hit Japan and that there were tsunami warnings for over 50 countries and as far away as California.  The quake had happened five hours earlier.  I read that a 30 foot wall of water had hit the Sendai area, driving debris 6.2 miles inland.  I called Rich while he drove and broke the news to him.  I had to talk to someone about what I had just discovered. 

While earthquakes seem to be common place in our world, but after seeing the destruction Chile had after their 8.8 magnitude quake just over a year ago I knew the outcome in Japan would be catastrophic. 

I thought about the massive devastation and loss of life in the 2004 India Ocean earthquake and tsunami where 230,000 people lost their lives.  When that tsunami occurred, my family was on the beach in Mexico and as I looked out across the ocean, it was hard to comprehend something like that happening to people just like me.   

For the next hour I read online about the newest updates and researched past earthquakes.  The largest was in Chile in 1960 a 9.5 quake rocked that nation producing a tsunami that devastated the city of Hilo, Hawaii and killed 61 people.  I lived in Hawaii in college and to think an earthquake in South America could produce a tidal wave that would cross the Pacific Ocean and kill people on the Big Island was beyond belief.

In 1964 there was a 9.2 quake next to Anchorage, Alaska that killed 131 people.  While my family and I visiting there in the summer of 2006, we went to a museum that had photographs of the damage and let you sit in a room where they reenacted the violent shaking that occurred during the earthquake.  It is something I'll never forget.

As more reports came in from Japan and videos were posted online, my heart broke.  The quake was so powerful GPS showed the coastline of Japan moved 8 feet.  It moved our entire planet's axis 4 inches and made the day longer.

4 million building were without power.  9,500 people in one town, 1/2 of its population, were unaccounted for.  There were huge areas where the debris was 10 feet thick.  To watch the water push over beautiful plots of farmland with floating home on fire, cars and boats being tossed like small toys, it was heart wrenching.  Then came the nuclear reactors failing and possible nuclear meltdown.  This brought a new element of danger. 

On Friday night the LDS church issued a statement that 2/3 of the missionaries in Sendai were accounted for.     There are 84 missionaries there, which meant 20 families were unsure if their missionary was safe or alive.  We said a special prayer on Friday night asking that the missionaries would be alright.   Would they find the missing missionaries?  I had seen the videos and massive flooding and complete devastation of the Sendai area.  It made me nervous.

Then on Saturday morning, the church issued a statement that all of the missionaries in the Japan mission had been contacted and all were safe and accounted for.  What a miracle!  I true act of God keeping His servants safe.  My heart burned and I knew it wasn't just luck or a coincidence that the missionaries were alive.  Heavenly Father had protected them. 

The people of Japan have been a remarkable example of courage, resilience and fortitude.  The people have remained calm, patiently waiting in lines for the scant resources available in the hardest hit areas.  500,000 are in shelters and many have lost not only their homes, but their entire city.  There has been no reported looting, rioting or people voicing their complaints found in reports. 

I contrast that to the chaos of New Orleans after Katrina.  The people were dangerous, desperate and lawlessness was common place. 

The Japanese are a strong, proud people who are ready for the difficult days, weeks and months ahead and ready to move forward to reach the goal of one day regaining the normalcy they once had.

The Emperor Akihito today said, "I pray we will all take care of each other to overcome this tragedy."

I hope we all can pray for those suffering and hurting in Japan, count our blessings- the large and the small every day, and take care of each other because we all face challenges, we all have struggles and we all need love and support to get us through.

Images from Japan

 photo via National Geographic

 photo via CNN

 photo via CNN

 photo via CNN

photo via CNN