I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters

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I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters Page 5

by Lauren Tarshis

all wars.” Tragically, it was not. Twenty years later, Germany

  started World War II.

  During World

  War I, much

  of the fighting

  happened from

  trenches, long

  ditches dug

  into the ground.

  Trench warfare

  was brutal and

  miserable for

  soldiers, who

  lived in these

  muddy pits for

  weeks or months

  at a time.

  British soldiers on the march

  #4

  THE JAPANESE

  TSUNAMI, 2011

  On the afternoon of March 11, 2011, the students

  and teachers of Kamaishi East Junior High

  School, in Kamaishi, Japan, were getting ready

  for after-school activities. Fourteen-year-old Aki

  Kawasaki was excited about basketball practice.

  Kana Sasaki was getting dressed for tennis.

  Fumiya Akasaka, captain of the boys’ judo team,

  was heading for the gym. Shin Saito, English

  teacher and badminton coach, was tying his

  shoes. It was a typical Friday afternoon — that is,

  until 2:46 P.M., when a massive earthquake began

  to rumble twenty miles below the floor of the

  Pacific Ocean.

  The quake, about forty miles off the

  northeastern shore of Japan, was a thousand times

  more powerful than the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

  It sent shock waves hundreds of miles in every

  direction. In Tokyo, office buildings swayed like

  blades of grass. Subways stopped underground. In

  Kamaishi, a town on Japan’s beautiful northeastern

  coast, buildings shook violently. Gaping holes

  opened in the streets.

  The students and teachers of Kamaishi East

  rushed for cover. Computers, books, and furni-

  ture crashed to the floor around them. People

  screamed, but their cries couldn’t be heard over

  the sound of the quake. That was something that

  people would talk about for years to come — the

  sound of the earthquake’s roar, as if a monstrous

  beast had awakened deep inside the earth.

  Most earthquakes last for just a few seconds,

  blasting out quick bursts of destruction. This

  quake was different. It went on and on, like an

  endless nightmare. It continued for nearly six

  minutes — the shaking, the roaring, the crashing,

  the shattering terror. When the earth finally

  stopped shaking, there was a moment of eerie

  quiet.

  Like most schools in Japan, the Kamaishi East

  building had been carefully built to withstand

  earthquakes. Even after six minutes of violent

  shaking, the building stood strong. Fortunately

  none of the students and teachers was seriously

  injured.

  But there was no feeling of relief for Aki,

  Kana, Fumiya, or any of the other students at

  Kamaishi East. They knew that the disaster was

  just beginning.

  The quake under the ocean floor had triggered

  a tsunami, a series of massive waves. The waves

  were hundreds of miles wide and were racing

  across the ocean at jet speeds. Just a few yards

  high at first, the waves would grow stronger and

  bigger. In some places, they would reach as high

  as 133 feet as they approached the shore. Within

  thirty minutes, the waves would hit Japan’s

  northeastern coast with the force of the most

  powerful bombs.

  EARTHQUAKE WARNINGS

  Few places on Earth are as prone to earthquakes

  and tsunamis as Japan. Small quakes hit the

  country every single day. Most are so mild that

  the ground barely shakes. But over the past

  The Great Wave off Kanagawa

  , a nineteenth-century

  woodblock print by Japanese artist Hokusai

  century alone, major earthquakes have turned

  modern cities to rubble. The worst was in 1923,

  when a major quake hit Tokyo. Fires broke out,

  and within days much of the city was a smoldering

  ruin. More than 140,000 people died. Other major

  quakes have caused devastating damage to the

  cities of Kyoto and Kobe.

  Over the past few decades, Japan has done

  more than any other country to protect its citizens

  from earthquakes. Building laws are strict. Newer

  skyscrapers, schools, and other structures are

  designed to sway, rather than crumble, when the

  ground below shakes.

  Japan also has the world’s most advanced

  earthquake-warning system. Sensors around the

  country can detect the very first stages of an

  earthquake, the first shock waves that happen

  minutes before the most serious shaking begins.

  Alerts are sent out over cell phones. These few

  precious minutes of warning can mean the

  difference between life and death. Drivers can

  pull off to the side

  of a highway. Subway

  conductors can halt

  their trains. Doctors

  and nurses can stop a

  delicate surgery before

  the shaking starts.

  Japan also has a system designed to protect

  against tsunamis. In fact, Kamaishi was famous

  throughout Japan for the world’s largest tsunami

  wall. The gigantic barrier of steel and concrete

  was one mile long, 297 feet deep, and rose twenty

  feet above the water. It cost one billion dollars and

  even earned a spot in the Guinness World Records

  as the biggest seawall ever built. Tsunamis had

  destroyed the city twice in the past 150 years —

  once in 1896, and again in 1933. Town leaders

  believed that their new wall would hold back even

  the most violent tsunami waves.

  But not everyone was so sure.

  Signs like these can be

  found all along Japan’s

  coasts.

  The leaders of Kamaishi’s schools had reason

  to be especially worried about tsunamis. Several of

  the city’s schools were within striking distance

  of large waves. If a tsunami hit, students and

  teachers would be in grave danger. And so, even

  as the giant tsunami wall was being built, the

  school leaders were working on their own plan

  for keeping students safe. The idea was that they

  would turn Kamaishi’s middle school students

  into tsunami experts. The more students knew,

  school leaders believed, the more likely they would

  be to survive if a tsunami struck.

  So at Kamaishi East and other middle schools,

  tsunami education became a part of every class.

  In social studies, students researched the 1933

  event and other tsunamis and their effects on the

  city. In science, they learned how tsunamis form.

  In language arts, they wrote essays about the 1896

  tsunami. They drew hazard maps showing the

  likely path of the waves. They explored the area

  around the school, searching out the highest

  points. They even learned to cook soup for people

  in disaster shelters.

  The school also held frequent tsunami drills.

/>   Students were taught to gather outside the school

  while teachers took attendance. They would then

  wait for an announcement on the loudspeaker

  instructing them to walk to the “refuge area,” a

  parking lot about a ten-minute walk away.

  But when the quake struck, most students

  immediately realized that what they had practiced

  in the drills would not work. They could tell

  that this quake was incredibly powerful, likely

  stronger than any recent earthquakes. They had

  no doubt that a tsunami was already speeding

  right for them. There was no time to stand in

  the courtyard. The electricity had been knocked

  out, so no announcement would be coming. It

  was up to them to lead the escape, a life-or-death

  race with the wave. There was not one minute to

  spare. With panicked shouts, students urged their

  The

  coast at

  Minamisoma,

  Fukushima,

  on March

  11, 2011

  teachers to follow them as they rushed for higher

  ground.

  “Before I realized I was running, my feet were

  moving,” Kana would later say.

  Teachers at the elementary school next door

  had planned to keep their young students on their

  building’s third floor. The sight of the older

  students rushing away changed their minds. Soon

  hundreds of students and teachers were in a

  frantic dash for safety. Older children grabbed the

  younger ones and carried them on their backs.

  “I thought the tsunami would come,” said Aki.

  “I was desperately trying to escape.”

  They reached the parking-lot refuge area but

  decided that it was not high enough. Again, older

  students helped the younger ones, grabbing their

  hands, pushing them along.

  They continued on, climbing higher into the

  hills. They finally came to rest in a parking lot on

  a hill. Terrified and out of breath, they had a clear

  view of the horrific scene unfolding in their city

  just below.

  A BLACK RAGING RIVER

  The ocean had begun its attack. Just thirty

  minutes after the earthquake, a black wave hit.

  The tsunami wall crumbled like a sand castle.

  Many people had climbed up onto the wall,

  believing they’d be safe. All were swept away.

  Water rushed into the streets, rising so quickly

  that cars, trucks, homes, and people were

  swallowed in seconds.

  While the

  tsunami

  floods Iwaki

  City, fires

  start to

  burn.

  The water — now a black raging river filled

  with debris, boats, and wrecked homes — rushed

  deeper into the city and up into the hills. The

  students watched in shock as their school was

  engulfed. At the elementary school, a car, lifted

  by the waters, crashed into the building’s third

  floor, exactly where the teachers had planned to

  wait with the children after the quake. If they

  had stayed, they would have likely been killed.

  Similar scenes were unfolding up and down

  Japan’s coast. In a matter of minutes, hundreds

  of small cities, bustling towns, quaint fishing

  villages, and quiet farming communities were

  disappearing under the water. The seawater

  traveled farther inland than anyone imaged it

  could. Miles from the ocean, towns were

  overwhelmed.

  And then, like a monster returning to its lair,

  the water was sucked back into the Pacific Ocean.

  Thousands of people who had survived the quake

  and the waves were swept out to sea.

  In the hours after the quake and the tsunami,

  Aki, Kana, and Fumiya stood amid a group

  of hundreds of stunned students and teachers.

  They eventually made their way to one of the

  city’s surviving school buildings, where they found

  no food, water, or lights. They spent the night

  there, shivering in the cold, terrified for their

  families.

  They went to another school the next day, and

  the full picture of the disaster started to become

  clear. They learned that much of Kamaishi was

  gone, that hundreds of people had died and many

  Up and down

  Japan’s coast

  were unreal

  sights, like

  this boat

  perched on a

  rooftop in the

  town of Otsuchi.

  more were missing. Most of the students’ homes

  were lost. Fourteen students lost one or both

  parents. Aki, Kana, and Fumiya were among the

  lucky: Their families were safe.

  FINDING HOPE

  The disaster that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, is

  now known as the Great Tohoku Earthquake.

  The earthquake was the strongest to ever strike

  Japan and the fourth most powerful in all of

  recorded history. But it was the tsunami that

  caused most of the death and destruction.

  Kamaishi East Junior High School students Kana

  Sasaki (left), Fumiya Akasaka (center), and

  Aki Kawasaki

  Approximately eighteen thousand people were

  killed. One hundred thousand buildings were

  destroyed. In some areas of the coast, the water rose

  to a staggering 133 feet. Hundreds of commu-

  nities were destroyed — bustling cities, beautiful

  villages, vibrant towns, centuries-old neighbor-

  hoods. For miles in every direction, there was

  nothing left but toxic mud littered with the

  wreckage of homes and businesses. Tanker ships

  had been dragged miles from the sea. Smashed

  cars teetered on buildings.

  Japanese

  soldiers stand

  in the street

  to look at

  a ship that

  blocks the road.

  And there was another disaster unfolding, in a

  town called Fukushima. Tsunami waves had

  badly damaged two nuclear power plants. Toxic

  radiation was leaking into the air, endangering

  hundreds of thousands of people. As far away as

  The streets of Kesennuma City are flooded

  after the tsunami.

  Tokyo, 150 miles away, many people braced for

  a full-blown nuclear meltdown. This kind of

  nuclear disaster had happened only once before in

  history, in Chernobyl, a town located in what is

  now the country of Ukraine. Today, hundreds of

  square miles around the ruined Chernobyl power

  plant are so poisoned by radiation that no humans

  live there. For weeks after the quake and tsunami,

  many feared that the same could happen in Japan.

  It is hard to imagine the horror and fear that

  gripped the country.

  To commemorate the first

  anniversary of the disaster,

  students stood vigil along

  the beaches throughout Japan.

  But amid the hopelessness, many found

  inspiration in the story of the students of Kamaishi

  East. Not one student or teacher died in the

  disaster. The st
ory of the students quickly spread

  around the country. Most agree it was the years of

  preparation and the quick-thinking students that

  made the difference.

  “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for them,”

  Mr. Sato said. “And it’s the students who have

  given us hope and the strength to move on.”

  THE

  TSUNAMI

  FILES

  The events of March 11, 2011, are now

  known as the Great Tohoku Earthquake

  and Tsunami. It was actually three terrible

  disasters bundled together — the powerful

  quake, the hundreds-miles-wide tsunami,

  and the ongoing nuclear disaster. Years later,

  most of the ruined areas have been cleaned

  up and rebuilt. But many challenges remain.

  Read on to learn more.

  The tsunami leveled dozens of towns and

  villages along hundreds of miles of the coast.

  But today, most have been rebuilt, like the

  town of Miyako pictured here.

  3

  The Death Toll was approximately

  eighteen thousand people. Most people died in the

  tsunami, not the earthquake.

  4

  The Force of the earthquake

  shifted Earth on its axis.

  5

  The Wreckage

  totaled twenty-five

  million tons.

  6

  The Cost of rebuilding

  the affected areas is estimated to top

  three hundred billion dollars.

  2

  The Wave topped 133 feet in some areas,

  taller than a nine-story building. It traveled as far

  as six miles inland.

  1

  The Quake measured 9.0 on the Richter

  scale, making it the strongest earthquake ever to hit

  Japan since record keeping began.

  FACTS ABOUT

  THE GREAT TOHOKU

  EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI

  TSUNAMI

  is a Japanese

  word meaning

  “harbor

  wave.”

  JAPAN’S NUCLEAR

  DISASTER

  Above, Fukushima Daiichi power plant, before

 

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