One couple’s battle to find each other, post-quake focus 03/18/2011

One couple’s battle to find each other, post-quake

focus

03/18/2011
ISHINOMAKI — Tsueko Takahashi, 56, has carved a dry path to her home over muddy wood panels, fallen utility poles and chunks of concrete. The trek is difficult but one she is grateful to be able to make.

When the 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck coastal Ishinomaki, she hurriedly bundled her 89-year-old mother into the car and sped toward higher ground in the center of town and the paper mill where her husband Mikio works.

But Mikio had other ideas — he rushed home to check on his family, but quickly found himself trapped on the upper floor of his home when the tidal surge flooded the lower level and aftershocks rumbled on for hours.

The couple would be separated for two nights, not knowing if the other had survived. Hundreds have been killed in the town and many others have been displaced..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110318com3.html