With rail traffic disrupted, power outages and roads damaged, parts of Tokyo were in gridlock following the 8.9 earthquake early Friday morning.
Buckhead resident Hidetaka “Tac” Ishii, who grew up in Tokyo, said Saturday his brother's family back home was unhurt, but struggling with some of the chaos following the quake.
The quake struck while the brother's daughter-in-law was visiting her 90-year-old father in a Tokyo hospital. All survived unhurt, but the niece became stuck in gridlock while driving home. She abandoned her car and walked three miles back home, then returned for the car early Saturday morning, to find it still stuck in the same traffic jam.
Ishii's niece, Maho Murai, whose husband has a home on the shore in Soma, just south of Sendai and near the quake's epicenter, has still not been accounted for, he said. "It is ultimately certain that the husband’s home is gone," said Ishii.
"We are hoping my brother’s son-in-law’s family members are safe somewhere," he said.
Ishii, 56, moved to Atlanta in 1979, and works as a business consultant for Japanese developers and investors.
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