Aftermath

The name of the game now is conservation. The base is still running on very limited electricity. That means anything that is not "mission essential" is pretty much closed. Lots of stuff is still running off of generators (including the hospital). Stoplights on base were just restored yesterday. School has been closed this week, and when it opens next week they aren't going to run electricity to the kitchen, so the kids will be eating sandwiches. I have the thermostats set at 64. All of my appliances are unplugged when I'm not using them. I'm being especially good about turning lights off in rooms I'm not in (Mom would be so proud:)). I'm only showering every other day... okay... part of that is laziness, but I'm happy to be able to justify it:).

Fuel is also being used very carefully. Right now, only vehicles with a quarter tank or less are able to use the gas station on base. Up until yesterday the lines to get gas on base were averaging about 2 hours long. The situation is much better now, but everyone is still being really careful to use as little as possible.

Phone lines and cell phone coverage were a little spotty at first, but it seems to be better now. Up until yesterday the active duty pharmacist (the only other pharmacist on base) was sleeping at the hospital, because there had to be a pharmacist on call, and she was unreachable on her cell phone. Because there are only two of us currently in Misawa, they've authorized me to work overtime (an extreme rarity) so I'll be working this weekend.

We are completely safe here, and I think we all realize (or should realize) how fortunate we are to have electricity, food and gasoline available. But it has been stressful for a lot of people, and I think that's why they are offering a volunteer departure plan.

I'm planning on staying, and I'm happy to do so. First of all, I don't want to have to worry about trying to transport my dog, and I don't want to leave him behind for somebody else to take care of. Second of all, I like it here, and I don't feel that I'm in any danger that would make me want to go. Third, and maybe most importantly, I am very much needed at work right now. I am thankful to even have a job, and I'm especially grateful that I can help out right now when the pharmacy staff is stretched thin.

Earthquake

I was at work when the earthquake hit. I held on to the counter, because the shaking made me dizzy, but nobody was diving under tables or anything... I think we expected it to just taper off like all other earthquakes we usually get. But it just kept going and building in intensity, for at least a minute or two. Then the power went out. We still thought it was probably going to flicker back on at any time. Then we started getting aftershocks every few minutes and I think that's when we realized that it wasn't our everyday earthquake. They evacuated the med group at that time and I went home.

That night (Friday) all the girls on north base kind of stuck together (mostly out of boredom). We hung out at a friends house until dark when we realized we needed to find some flashlights pretty quickly. I think we all really expected to have power up that evening. We had multiple people from the squadron checking in to make sure every one was accounted for, even going door to door when phones went down.

Saturday they opened the commissary. I actually really needed bread, because I do my grocery shopping on weekends, and my bread was molded... so Alison and I braved the commissary lines. It was insane. The only light was what was coming from the refrigerator cases and cash registers. The rest of the store was dark because they were working off of emergency generators. They opened at 9am. At 9:08, when we arrived, the line wrapped the entire perimeter of the store. It took over an hour to get our few groceries.

Saturday evening I started hearing rumors of major destruction throughout Japan. I didn't believe them. Oh, and one of our friends went into labor. A month early. With her husband deployed. (Mom and baby are fine now, although baby is in the Hachinohe hospital because he was premature). Saturday evening, all the stuff in the fridge had to go outside where it was hovering around freezing. It started to get just a little bit cold in the house. Also, Saturday evening there were people going door-to-door passing out updates on what was available on base. That's when I realized that there were phones set up to call the States.

Sunday morning I took a freezing cold shower by candle light, because there are no windows in our bathroom. I also finally got a call out to the folks using phones they had set up on base for 5-minute morale calls. My dad asked me about the situation with Fukushima nuclear plant. I had no idea what he was talking about.

Sunday afternoon it started to warm up outside so my friends and I grabbed some of our thawing meat and had a barbeque. We were enjoying chicken, pork chops, flank steak, baked potatoes and grilled asparagus (one of the best meals I've had since Chris has deployed) when the power came back on. We got phone and internet a few hours later. In total, our power was only out for about 48 hours.

When I finally sat down to watch the news, I cried. We had heard rumors of devastation, but it was easy to think they were all rumors until I saw the pictures on television. We are incredibly blessed here in Misawa. I have nothing to complain about. Absolutely nothing.

There are a lot of rescue efforts being channeled through Misawa right now. People are also signing up in large groups to help clean up the local area. There's a group of volunteers that goes out every day and everyone always comes back exhausted, filthy, and happy they were able to help. 

Here are a couple of pictures of us "roughing it" when we were without electricity. As you can see, we did pretty well here in Misawa. 

That's marinated flank steak and asparagus ready for the grill.

Huck kept trying to run off with the milk... I guess it's our fault for letting him play with empty milk jugs.

Chris, you would be proud. Everything was grilled to perfection, if I do say so myself.

There were only three of us girls to eat all this... We did our best:)