Storms, lightning, earthquakes and tsunamis

Saturday 12th March, 2011

After Roger's service yesterday afternoon, Sheridan, Daniel and I decided to have some dinner and drinks at the Springwood Sportsclub. This is our local. It was great catching up on all the goss we've missed and also having a few drinks in Roger's honour.

While sitting in the club watching the TV, some breaking news got my attention. An Earthquake and Tsunami had hit the city of Sendai in Japan and the devastation was enormous. No one could've prepared for this. The damage was unbelievable and the aftershocks could be felt in Tokyo. I was starting to worry, as Daniel was due to fly out the following evening. He would be landing in Narita airport, which is located in Tokyo and would be in transit for a few hours. He would then board his connecting flight to Busan. We decided to give Qantas a call the following day.

It was a very hot evening and a storm seemed to be approaching. Sheridan and I were about to order our dinner when all of a sudden the electricity in the club goes and all us patrons are left there, standing in the dark. I freaked out as usual and you could hear the storm thundering very loudly, but in saying that, it was an amazing light show. I was worried about my dogs back home, so I messaged mum a few times making sure they weren't having this massive storm too. Everything was ok in Maroubra. There was no indication of a storm.

By 9pm the power was still out and the manager told us, if they can't get the power running by 9.15pm, they would have to evacuate everyone. Evacuate?! In the rain?! and the storm?! I was totally freaking out now!!! Daniel and Sheridan just shrugged. Apparently this happens all the time in the mountains? lol

So at 9.15pm we were told to leave..... but it was so early... and it was a Friday night.... so we headed over to the Ori. We had a few drinks there and at some stage also went to Springwood Pizza (or Boobarella's Pizza as Daniel affectionately calls it) for dinner. We were starving by this point. Belly's full of pizza and jetlagged, we called it a night close to midnight.

We got up early, and gave Qantas a call. The earthquake had left Japan in a very bad state. This was made even worse by the tsunami that followed. Qantas were still flying into Narita airport, so Daniel's flight was still going ahead. I really didn't want him to go. There were still alot of aftershocks and the Japanese people were now trying to evacuate, which would only mean chaos. The roads and train lines, even those connecting to Narita had been damaged, so it was leaving alot of people stranded. I suppose the plus side to this was that Daniel would only be there for a few hours...

We made our way to Sydney International Airport around 6pm, check-in his bags and had dinner together. It was a sweet short goodbye as I would be coming back to Korea in afew days. Just enough to make him miss me :p

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