Beth Moreau's warning of the upcoming earthquake and aftershocks in Japan came in the form of her 2-year-old's rocking horse.
It started to move on its own.
Then the metal blinds started to rattle.
So the 26-year-old Fayetteville woman scooped up her daughter, Kaylee, huddled in the living room of their house on Yokota Air Force Base while the pictures on the walls, dishes and glasses shuddered and clinked around them when the outer reaches of a devastating earthquake got to them.
She said the aftershocks – coming in mid afternoon -- were just as bad as the initial quake and frightened her daughter even more. “It was as bad as the first one,” she said.
It appeared that Yokota AFB has escaped the the level of devastation seen elsewhere so, Moreau said, Yokota’s residents have been told the base will be the refuge for about 2,500 people and volunteers that are needed.
The 8.9 earthquake registered 5.0 at Yokota.
There are two other bases in Japan. Misawa Air Force Base is in northern Japan, where the damage has been the worst , and Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, the southernmost Air Force base in Japan.
By 12:30 a.m. there, Moreau had watched land at least 11 commercial aircraft diverted from Narita International Airport.
“It’s been a crazy day,” Moreau told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a call Friday. “It’s so unreal.”
Yokota is the home for the 374th Airlift Wing and it is Air Force’s only airlift hub in the western Pacific Ocean. There are about 11,000 civilians and military personnel on the base that is 28 miles northwest of Tokyo on the island of Honshu.
“There are quakes all the time in Japan,” Moreau said. “[But] I’ve never experienced anything like this. I’ve been in tornadoes [in Georgia]. I can deal with that. But this just happening and not knowing [it is coming] is scary.”
She can receive calls on her cell phone but not place them and her land line doesn't work at all. She is getting word to her family and her husband in Iraq via e-mail and Facebook.com. Much of the information she is getting from the base is coming via Facebook.
“I feel like the worst is over and our base is here to help others in need,” Moreau said. “It kind of reminds me of being in Georgia during [Hurricane] Katrina. We had a little storm after Katrina. We could help the evacuees. But there is nothing else we can do. I feel so helpless. It’s scary.”
About the Author
