Brett's Version of the Quake - aka, the boring version

So this is what happened, at least as I remember it two and a half weeks later. 
On Friday, 3/11/11, things got crazy.  Everything was actually slightly “crazy”
starting two days before.  Our Operation Readiness Exercise (ORE) kicked off. 
My job was to be the JAG/Fighter Wing Staff Agency representative in the
Emergency Operation Center (EOC) for the day shifts.  The EOC is a bunker with a
representative from every agency.  We were flowing along, with all the urgency
that the exercise requires.  Around 2:50 pm is when it happened.  I had actually
gotten up from my seat and was in the kitchen area when the earthquake began. 
The walls began rumbling and the ground began rocking.  I decided to get under
the doorframe to wait it out.  It kept going and it was by far the biggest
earthquake I’ve ever felt (we actually had a 7.0 or something just a couple of days
prior). I was wondering how strong people were feeling it above ground, figuring
I was feeling the least of it.  Near the end of the rocking the lights flickered
out, to a bunch of groans.  They came back on quickly as the backup generator
kicked in.  The supervisor of the EOC floor announced that the exercise was
paused and we should pull out our emergency response checklist for “major
earthquake.”  As my computer was booting back up, I reviewed the legal office
responsibilities in a major earthquake.  There weren’t many, just dealing with
people filing some claims for damages on the back end.  The Public Affairs (PA)
guy was next to me and looked at the checklist I was using.  He cussed as he saw
all the work PA was going to have to do.
                Every unit on base (15 or so units?) has a Unit Control Center
(UCC).  We call the UCC with different taskings, they get the job done and then
report back to the EOC.  I contacted our UCC and said we had to get 100%
accountability of everybody and to conduct a sweep of the facility to determine
any damage.  Reports came in shortly about how chaotic it was outside of our
bunker.  They expanded the accountability from active duty military on duty to
everybody in your unit (civilians and military), including family members.  I
figured this would be a good time to call Rachel.  Luckily our phone was still
working (most phones were down, but ours didn’t go out until later that night). 
Rach and the girls were fine.  The Department of Defense Dependent’s Schools
(DoDDS) fall under the FWSA, so we needed to contact the schools.  All of this
accountability became impossible once we realized that most of the phone lines
were down.  The EOC/UCC lines must be super charged powerful, because none of
those phone lines had an issue.  Our UCCs only issue was they were now sitting
in the dark with nothing but flashlights and some recall rosters.  The cops came
to us and said to get the message to the schools to not let the kids out because
the streets are crazy.  But this came too late because the kids had already been
released and parents were already picking them up.  The DoDDS situation became
more serious when we heard the earthquake was an 8.9 and we were told it was
close to Tokyo.  Five different school sports teams were down in Tokyo for the
weekend and this caused a lot of worry.  It basically took a day to locate them
all.  Some were stuck on a bus, some were stuck on a train, but all 5 of them
ended up eventually making their way to the Air Force Base down in Tokyo and
were fine.  In getting the 100% accountability our office was worried about one
of our guys. They were driving back from Tokyo Disneyland and nobody knew
exactly where they were.  Turns out he was actually in Sendai for the quake,
driving on a bridge that starting swinging, but he wisely didn’t stay in Sendai,
and kept on driving and made it back to the base fine.
                My shift change came at 6:00 pm and I headed home.  Rachel had a
little candlelight picnic on the floor laid out, and our friend Chelsey and son
Keaton were there.  They just moved into a 9th floor tower apartment and didn’t
really want to be there.  I guess I should mention that the earthquakes were
still coming.  There wasn’t just one big quake.  Every 5-10 minutes there were
earthquakes for the first two days.  When the big ones would come we’d blow out
the candles so the house wouldn’t burn down.  The candles were great, as were
all of our flashlights.  We were on a bit of a flashlight kick a few months
beforehand, and that worked out well for us.

                Marie and Keaton alternated between being scared of them and
thinking they were funny.  “It’s shaking! It’s shaking!” was said a thousand
times that night.  Most of the times it was shaking, but sometimes they just
imagined it.  Although they usually felt it before I did, I guess toddlers can
feel earthquakes like dogs can hear high pitched noises.  We hung out for a few
hours that night then turned in, with Chelsey and Keaton sleeping in the living
room.  Chelsey’s husband Andre was working the night shift for the exercise, and
as a civil engineer guy was very busy responding to all the damage around base. 

                I think I woke up twice that night for some of the bigger
earthquakes.  A real big one woke me up at 4:30, but it was time for me to get
into work anyway.  I wasn’t about to shower in cold water.  People were going to
have to handle me without a shower until the water turned warm (it ended up
being Sunday night when we had warm water).  I did my work thing.  The EOC was
one of the few places with power, so I wanted to get in there and find out what
was going on.  When I got in a was shown a few tsunami clips off CNN.com and I
couldn’t believe it.  That was the first time I realized how big of a disaster
this was.  Work was insanely busy that entire shift.  I had to ignore people for
a second to squeeze off a real quick email to the family.
                I went to my car after my shift and found a note from Rach that
they were over at the community center.  They did an amazing job in quickly
setting up this place.  They had some phones ready to go, some burgers/hot
dogs/pizza for sale, a little play area for the kids, and briefings every few
hours to get information to people.  I think it’s harder than ever these days
for people to not have access to information.  Computers, TVs, cell phones,
etc., were all down.  Not to mention house lights and the gas pumps.  I headed
over to the community center and spotted Rach amongst the masses.  Rach waited
like an hour and a half for a 5-minute phone call to her family.  She woke her
dad up at like 3:00 am, but he didn’t mind.  Then we stood in line and bought
our burgers. 

                The power was still out the next day, on Sunday.  The earth was
still shaking, but its pace had begun to slow a bit. I had to work but Rach made
it to church.  They just had Sacrament meeting.  The church lights came back on,
but it was very cold because the heat wasn’t on yet.  The message, as I
understand it, was to get ready to serve.  Later that day our power came back
on.  We turned on the news and the Fukishima nuclear plants caught our
attention.  While watching a knock came on our door from Tom.  He’s in the
branch presidency and said we are gathering food/clothing/supplies for our
neighboring branch in Hachinohe.  These people were in a much more critical
situation than we were.  I helped him with some of the names on his list.  In a
matter of hours 3 vans were loaded up, and the next day were taken to Hachinohe.

                I guess I don’t need to go into a day-by-day journal about what
was going on.  This has been a very memorable two weeks.  Rach took Pres Obama
up on his offer to head back to the states.  Hopefully they are having fun and I
get them back before too long.