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Interview with Ryoichi and Yayoi Suzuki 1/4 (on 3/11 - Evacuating to Kabanomachi Primary School)
- It's a schedule. - Is that what you 've been doing today?
Yes. From 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
- One and a half hours of exercise. - Yes.
- In fact, one hour 's exercise. - 30 minutes lecture? - Exactly.
- What kind of exercise did you do? - Stretches. We do foot exercises like this.
After losing his house in Arahama, Mr. Suzuki has been living in a temporary house in Nagamachi.
- Please, come in. - Thank you.
His dog named Baron who fled the tsunami and now lives in a temporary house.
At the moment of the earthquake
On that day we went to a veterinary hospital to have my dog checked out.
On our way home, we stopped by a supermarket to buy some food for dinner. Then the quake hit.
My wife was in the shop and I was in the car with Baron.
The ground started shaking violently and utility poles were swaying.
I thought I'd better crawl under a car before the utility poles fall down.
- But I had no room to get out of my car. - Indeed.
Although my car stopped, I kept holding onto the steering wheel, while pressing the brake pedal and holding my dog in my arm.
Then my wife jumped out of the shop, screaming "Ahhh!"
Bottles rattled on the shelf. Flowers and vegetables displayed near the entrance were sent flying.
Clerks shouted, "It's dangerous. Please get out." We went outside, huddled together saying "It 's still shaking."
- The quake continued for a long time. - Indeed.
She couldn't come to my car. She staggered.
I struggled in the car, holding Baron in my arm. My car nearly collided with the next car. Cars were jumping up and down.
Later I found out it was a level 7 earthquake.
Electric poles swung right and left like a metronome. It was scary.
Electric wires also swung back and forth. They swung like this.
I know. Because I was in Wakabayashi-ku. I was shopping at a liquor shop.
Listening to a radio, I knew a tsunami would arrive in 40 or 50 minutes.
We were 10-minutes drive away from our house. We were worried, so we went to check it.
We entered the house to find it messy inside But there were no problems with house structure.
We decided to only take our valuables. Then we got out of the house, right? Yes, we went outside.
We saw a 3rd grade high school girl living across the road. She was perplexed.
I told to her to get in my car. And we fled to the west along the prefectural street.
Then we saw the girl 's mother 's red car coming toward us, so we turned around.
On arrival at our house, we handed the girl to her mother. My wife went inside once again because we were back home.
She found a water pipe in the toilet leaking.
She asked me to stop the leaking because the house would be flooded when we returned later.
- I tried to shut off the main valve on the 1st floor. - He had time to do it!
That's right. Because shutting off the water was more important.
I thought we should bring water. My wife kept 3 or 4 bottles filled with water in the kitchen.
I picked them up and we got in our car.
Traffic lights on the streets were down. We saw several trucks passing across ahead of us.
We couldn't get through. But suddenly a space opened before us.
I sped away, crossed the street and headed to the east. Soon after, the tsunami came behind us.
- We desperately escaped. - What if it had been 10 minutes later?
5 minutes. If it had been 5 minutes later, we would have been devoured by the tsunami.
Since I thought we could go home that night, I only brought leftover dog food with me.
If we had collected anything, the tsunami would have engulfed us.
Even if it had been 4 minutes later, we wouldn't have survived. And if the traffic had been blocked, we wouldn 't have made it.
Because a car in front of us happened to find a clear space and crossed the street, we survived. I believe that.
Escaping from the tsunami
"What's that black thing?" I saw a black liquid mass swelling. "A Tsunami is coming" I thought.
A car behind us flashed its headlights several times.
It meant for us to go ahead quickly.
There was a van bearing the name of Choonso, an elderly house, ahead of us. It was evacuating with elderly people on board.
But the van was moving slowly. A driver behind us noticed the tsunami, and flashed his lights many times.
The van also noticed it then sped away. Wondering why, my wife looked back...
...and shouted "A tsunami is coming, run!"
- I was stunned. - I said "I want to see the tsunami."
- "Don't be silly! Run!" she said. - There was no time to say such things.
When I turned around, something black like crude oil was creeping from behind.
It's a tsunami. We fled, following the cars ahead of us.
Rice fields spread out over 500 meters ahead of you. Did you see the tsunami at the end of the rice fields?
No. The tsunami came from behind.
As I thought we had to flee, I focused on driving. My wife saw many things engulfed by the tsunami.
Baron was in the front-seat and I in the rear. Wondering why they flashed their lights, I turned back to find something moving.
It's a tsunami. Then he said "I want to see it, too."
"Don't say such a ridiculous thing." I shouted "Go quick, go!"
We saw some cars running toward the sea. They might be concerned about their houses.
They didn 't think a tsunami was coming. I don't think they could survive.
We tried to flee to the west, up to the Tobu highway.
As the road I was driving was a prefectural road, it was empty.
If we had used the main street, it would have been congested and we wouldn't have made it.
We went through the throughway underpass, hoping that if we reached the Tobu highway we might survive.
I thought we had finally survived. But I saw electric wires on the ground everywhere.
I thought we might die if our car ran over a 200 voltage electric wire, even though we had survived tsunami.
As we drove on an unpaved road in the paddy field, it was bumpy.
Electric wires were everywhere and the road was bumpy, but above all we had to flee to the west.
We came to the Self Defense Forces' base in the hope that they might help us.
The street in front of the SDF was empty. But the SDF officer directed us to proceed.
I was disappointed, wondering "Why?" Then the street ahead started congesting.
A flow of cars stopped. When I looked at the gasoline meter, it showed a red line.
We had only 5 liters of gasoline left. As it was no use driving with nowhere to go...
...I decided to evacuate to the parking lot of the Wakabayashi Post Office.
An idea came upon me; this is a 3 to 4-story building. If a tsunami came, we would run up to the top.
We stayed overnight in our car with nothing but the clothes on our backs.
- It was very cold. - It was snowing. - We had nothing, no blankets.
In the meantime, the car windows became frosty.
It gradually became invisible.
We were grateful that the lights of the post office were on. But the lights were turned off at 9 or 10 o'clock.
- Lights were on? Really? - Yes, lights were on.
They generated power in the building.
- It was well-lit. - Yes.
We also used restrooms at the post office, but they were closed at night.
What should we do? As I'm a man, it's easy. I went to the corner for a pee.
But my wife had to hold it in, saying "nature calls."
It was so cold that nature called even without drinking anything.
We always load a kit for Baron including toilet sheets and bottles of water in our car.
Placing the toilet sheets as absorbent in a plastic bag, I did it in the rear.
- Thank god you had toilet sheets. - Yes.
I said "Do it outside." "No!" she said.
She kept holding on, but finally she couldn't stand it anymore.
Facing difficulties, people will come up with a good idea.
Yes. It came upon me. I had toilet sheets.
I did it in the backyard without telling my family.
Nobody was there. I thought it's OK.
We don't think about going to the restroom in a time of disaster.
It's no problem for men but for women it 's different. But nobody saw us. Only 3 cars were parked there.
We couldn't sleep until the next morning. We shivered with cold.
I spent the night, holding my dog in my arms.
The next day, since we had only 5 liters of gasoline left, we tried to find a place to evacuate within 5-liter 's worth of driving.
We set out on the street because it was empty. Then we found Kabanomachi Primary School under our noses.
I thought "I have found our evacuation place." And we took shelter there for 14 days.
Continues to the "Evacuation at Wakabayashi gym and Kabanomachi Primary School"