'The tsunami just swept my parents away'

[marmar]

from the Guardian UK:




Japan earthquake: 'The tsunami just swept my parents away'
Jonathan Watts hears harrowing tales from survivors in the wrecked coastal town of Shintona in Miyagi prefecture

Jonathan Watts in Shintona
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 March 2011 10.36 GMT


Harumi Watanabe's last words to her parents were a desperate plea to "stay together" as a tsunami crashed through the windows and engulfed their family home with water, mud and wreckage.

She had rushed to help them as soon as the earthquake struck about 30 minutes earlier. "I closed my shop and drove home as quickly as I could," said Watanabe. "But there wasn't time to save them. They were old and too weak to walk so I couldn't get them in the car in time.

They were still in the living room when the surge hit. Though she gripped their hands, it was too strong. Her elderly mother and father were ripped from her grasp, screaming "I can't breathe" before they were dragged down.

Watanabe was then left fighting for her own life. "I stood on the furniture, but the water came up to my neck. There was only a narrow band of air below the ceiling. I thought I would die." .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/japan-earthquake-tsunami-miyagi-destruction

[lonestarnot]

1. Desperation of that story is heartbreaking.

:cry:

[roguevalley]

8. how do you live? How do you go on? That would be the only

thing in my head for the rest of my days. It was bad enough to see my parents leave as they died in bed but this? I always promised them that no matter how old and infirm we all got I would take care of them and carry them out of a bad thing on my back if I had to, relaying them. With earthquakes here and fires you sort of think about such things. But this?! I am so so sorry for her. Poor angel.

[suffragette]

2. K&R

:cry:

[pinto]

3. Ah geez.

That's heartbreaking.

[malaise]

4. Very sad

and there will be many more stories like this one. :cry:

[Lefta Dissenter]

5. and just one of how many

such stories. Tens of thousands, for sure - a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand? However many it is, each story, each loss is just unbearable.

It's just too heartbreaking for words. :cry:

[snappyturtle]

6. That story is gut wrenching....I can't even imagine what that might be like. nt

[snagglepuss]

7. What horror. How can people cope? May she and others in Japan find

continued strength to get through this nightmare.