Another M4.9 earthquake hit Ibaragi prefecture where my parents live this morning. My brother called my parents and they are safe. Thank you for your prayers.
The report says that people in the area the tsunami hit on March 11th were prepared for tsunami. It means they had a good warning system and many of them evacuated to the temporary evacuate places. However, the tsunami this time was above their expectation (most of places they expected 5 meters high tsunami as the biggest tsunami) and hit some of these temporary evacuate places too. In Kamaishi-city, more than 50 people who were in an evacuate place where city informed them to go when tsunami warning start. But, the tsunami was much bigger than they could expect and hit this evacuate place and all of people there were gone.
In Shichigahama town (we have a Japan Baptist Union church there), about 60 people walked to the temple near by where they were told that it is a safe temporary evacuation place. But, when one of them heard the news from radio, he realized that the coming tsunami would be higher than 3.3 meters. He knew that this temporary evacuate place is safe enough up to 3.3 meters. So, he told people there it was too risky to stay there and he helped them to move to the top of the hill near by. When all of them moved to the top of the hill, they saw their town, including the temple where they thought it was safe enough, were washed away by the tsunami.
Please continue to pray for Japan.
Eiji
Eiji and Emi Osato are Japanese missionaries working in Thailand, sent by the Japan Baptist Union (JBU).
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