Kobe Earthquake Experience

January 17, 1995 at 12 a.m.: I checked into a luxurious room on the 20th floor at a hotel. I had worked the evening shift that night at an executive floor, serving V.I.P. guests from America. I was very tired because it had been a long day, so I collapsed into bed and set the alarm clock for 5 a.m., so I could sleep for at least five hours. However, I had a peculiar night. Even though my body needed sleep, my heart felt some uneasiness. It was very unusual that I could not sleep. I changed my position many times in the bed, tried to relax, but when I looked at the alarm clock, it was 4:50 a.m. I decided to get up and prepare for work as I needed to be at the front desk at 6 a.m. that morning.



With my heavy head and body, I sat down on the chair by the bed, putting on my make-up. It was 5:30 and still dark outside. Nobody was walking down the street. It looked cold and quiet. Everything was okay, but I was still uneasy for some reason. Well, maybe I was too tired…



January 17, 1995 at 5:45 a.m.: When I was about to put on my lipstick, I heard a noise like Niagara Falls coming up from the ground below. Of course, there were no waterfalls around the hotel. I stopped what I was doing, listened to the noise, and still I could not understand what was going on. “What’s this noise?” I said. Then suddenly, the TV fell off the shelf, and the bed was swinging and bumping from the right to the left. All the drawers jumped out of the furniture toward the floor and closet doors kept opening and closing with a loud noise. As my body was thrown on the floor, I shouted out loud, “It’s an earthquake!”



I crawled on my shaky hands and knees to the table by the bed and crawled under it. And all I could do was to hold tight to the legs of the table. Everything was shaking, me included. I started praying, “Lord, help me! Help me!!” I was almost dancing because of the movement of the ground. But little by little, it calmed down and then stopped.



The earthquake seemed to last about ten minutes, but was only 45 seconds. I thought I would die, but I realized I had somehow survived. I wanted to cry, but I was a professional concierge at the hotel, and felt I should be strong to help our guests. I checked my appearance and my uniform in the mirror, opened the door, took a deep breath, and went out. On the 20th floor, there were guests from America, Australia, and so on. There they were, in the corridor, some in their underwear, their movements showing how panicked they were. "We are all right. Please get ready to evacuate.” As I said this, trying to make my voice strong, I ran down the stairs from the 20th floor to the lobby. The motion made me very dizzy.



Managers were at the front desk already when I got there. Cameron, my manager said to me, “Call every room and say they need to come down to the lobby. The lobby is the safest place for them to be. Do that now.” I started calling 500 rooms, asking them to come down to the lobby. An American airline crewmember said to me, “I cannot move. I am shaking. I cannot walk! What’s going on? I hate Japan!” “Do not worry,” I told her. “We have a new, strong building. We will be all right.” So I sent a bellboy to pick her up.

Around noon, I took a short break and watched the news about the earthquake on TV. The magnitude was 7.2. The earthquake was located in Kobe, my hometown, and the center was about 15 miles away from the hotel. On TV, I saw highways were buckled and saw many buildings on fire. The smoke was all over. It was scary to see that Kobe, my city, was destroyed. It was shocking. I thought where I was in the hotel was the center of the earthquake, but it was not. Kobe was by far the harder hit and it was where my parents, my relatives, and my friends were.

I called my house many times, but could not reach anyone. “We are unable to connect you with this number. Please try again,” came the voice from the telephone. There were many reports that thousands of people had already died in Kobe. Even so, I was very surprised at how calm I was and credited it to my faith in Christ. “God is with you, be strong, Noriko.”



My manager asked me to stay at the hotel, but I said no. I could not be comfortable while not knowing about the rest of my family. I wanted to be with them no matter what their condition was. I knew there would be no transportation at this point, so I asked around to see if anyone had a car. “Noriko, I will take you to Kobe,” Mr. Tatsumi, a front desk clerk, said. We headed off to Kobe immediately. We had no problem as we drove down to Nishinomiya, a city close to Kobe; the streets were okay, but then it became more and more difficult to find a way into Kobe. The earthquake caused crevices in the ground, and all the electric poles were broken off, lying down on the ground. We looked for spaces where one car could go through. I happened to see my friend’s home on the way, and the house had collapsed into the first floor. I knew my friend’s grandfather always slept on the first floor, so I started crying. The buildings were on fire, and the houses were destroyed, but it was eerie because it was very quiet. I could not see even a hint of rescue operations. I felt like I was the only survivor from a horrible war. But when we finally arrived at Fukuike Elementary School in Kobe, the place where I figured I might find my parents, the darkness kept me from seeing much of anything except shadows. There was no light anywhere except for burning homes.




There were hundreds of people outside in the freezing weather. The building was completely packed already; there was no room for more. It was a very cold night, and I could see my breath, but I did not feel cold because my thoughts were consumed by my concerns about my family. All I wanted to do was to look for my family. “Be strong, Noriko,” I said to myself. “God is with you.” And I renewed my search.



“Toshinori!” I screamed, but there was no answer. I was glad because I hoped my parents were safe inside of the building. Even in the dark, the building appeared okay. When I stepped into a corridor, I had to be careful not step on people. Every inch of the building including the corridor was packed. “Toshinori!” “No” “No…” “No…” came the answers. All I heard was “no.” I kept repeating my father’s name. Then I came to a science room. I groped my way to the door in the dark. Strangely, the door was closed. Slowly I opened the door and said, “Toshinori!” Still no answer. I could see many people were on the floor, but they did not move or say anything. The following day, I realized that was the room where the dead bodies were laid. No wonder the door was closed!



Even the stairs were full of people. While screaming my family name, I went upstairs and came to a huge gymnasium room, the last room of the building. The room had a spooky feeling. It was very dark and quiet, but there were hundreds of people, lying down, with no space between them. “Toshinori!” “Noriko! Here we are!” cried my mom. Even as I was embracing them, feeling such joy at having them safe, I was overwhelmed at how calm God had kept me through the whole terrible disaster. They had saved a space for me to lie down between them. My grandmother, uncles, and their families were also there. Unexpectedly, we had a family reunion that night.

And I ended up staying there for two months without water, gas, electricity, etc... More stories to tell, but that is for today. ;)