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Fact Box Level: 4.333 Tokens: 384 Types: 205 TTR: 0.534 |
A Survivor's Story
My name is Keiko Tanaka, and I live in Kobe, Japan. Because I was born and raised in Japan, I have experienced many earthquakes. By far the most powerful and frightening earthquake I have ever lived through was the one that struck my city on January 16, 1995.
My son's family and I live in a small house in Kobe. When the earthquake began, it was only 5:46 a.m. and we were all sleeping. I was thrown from my bed onto the carpet. I wanted to get to my son and his wife, but I couldn't—the amount of movement in our home was incredible. The door near where I was standing was swinging back and forth. I listened helplessly while just about everything standing in our home fell over. Loose objects were tossed across rooms, while the shaking continued. The noise was incredibly loud. When the earthquake finally stopped, I hurried to my son's room, where he, his wife Mika, and their children had been sleeping. Then we looked around our home. It had been heavily damaged. All the windows were broken, and the roof had fallen in. In the kitchen most of the dishes lay in small pieces all across the kitchen floor. Outside, we saw that our neighbors' houses had fallen down, too. People were standing near their homes, and everyone looked shocked and frightened.
Although we were all safe and no one had been hurt, we were still very affected by a terrible fear. In addition, we did not have electrical power or water for days. Overall, it was a terrifying experience that we worry may happen again. In the meantime, we are all beginning to try to rebuild our homes and our lives. We love our beautiful city of Kobe and do not want to leave it.
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