Captured The Big Japan Earthquake On Video 3-11-2011

I captured this video of the big earthquake while shopping on the 3rd floor (terminal 1) in Narita International Airport in Japan. The quake started as a long 15 second temblor which gave me time to grab my camera. My wife and I were returning from our vacation in the Philippines. We were suppossed to connect to Chicago and then St. Louis, Mo. but ended up camping in Gate 70 until Saturday evening. Our trip to the Philippines was similar. We flew to Dallas from STL to bypass the Chicago snow storm. In Dallas our first plane was taken out by de-icing problems. We boarded another plane and a water line broke, then the crew was over on their legal flight time so we had to spend the night in Texas. They made us leave our checked luggage on the plane so we had to buy new clothes and toiletries since we didn't have everything in our carry on luggage. Once we saw the news, we consider ourselves lucky!

Comments

1. I think I'd freak out, because I haven't experienced an earthquake in years. Maybe 7-8 or more years now. And I live in Hawaii. I'm glad many managed to stay calm despite what was happening
2. you break you buy...!!! scarry stuff man....
3. Ah, yes. I have had vacations like this before. I'm glad you guys finally made it home.
4. its kinda hard to tell sometimes what is shaking and the camera just shaking!
5. you need go outside to stay on hill
6. Its impressive that a building that large and open survived such a massive earthquake. Equally impressive is how each person reacts in different ways to it. Some run, some hide, and some stop to record it ^.^
7. increíble
8. Do these people know that these chairs can move??
9. que horrible por dios :(
10. meh-as most Japanese would react
11. Mantener la calma
12. I have no idea of what would happen if an earthquake like that one happened where I lived. Thank God for their tough building code!
13. @bobdonda I agree. I'll try to upload some more short videos of our time at the airport. There are just so many clips to go through and edit and none of them are labeled. lol.
14. @bobdonda We were returning to the U.S. from our vacation in the Philippines. Our connecting flight was in Japan. We had time to shop while waiting for our flight. My wife had just walked out of the store in the video when the earthquake began. We were probably in one of the safest places in Japan for an earthquake.
15. @kennyknight7 glad to hear you told the airport employees you appreciate them... customer service and dealing with demanding people is crazy enough on normal days, I never want to know what it's like dealing with those customers under 10 times as much pressure. just letting the employees know you're on their side can release so much of the stress and anger from dealing with the bad customers
16. @kennyknight7 Just curious, why did you return to the US? Were you concerned there would be more earthquakes, did you want to not be near the damaged/flooded areas, did you have concerns about nuclear radiation, etc? Did you suddenly leave when you had a job there or anything like that? None of my business I know, I'm just curious about the situation. I would have been pretty concerned about it, and I can't imagine what it would have been like living in one of the heavily damaged areas.
17. @kennyknight7 veru impressive anyway. I'm from Chile, I was in the 8.8 earthquake. Some buildings crushed against the ground, like "alto rio" in concepción . Greetings.
18. @greeny998 Yeah, I was surprised at how intense the aftershocks were. All flights were cancelled so we slept on the floor in terminal 1, gate 70. We tried sleeping near an exit door, just in case we had to run outside onto the tarmac. Everytime a strong aftershock would hit, everyone would wake up and sit up at the same time and look around with the same look on their faces as if waiting for someone to make the first move for the door.
19. @4bluesfans I didn't realize the magnitude of the quake and situation at that time. I had only been through a few tremors before that. I turned to my wife after it stopped and asked if that was a 6 or 7magnitude(guessing). She said much bigger. She had been through many quakes before. We were probably in one of the safest buildings for an earthquake.
20. @acquamarine28 I have alot of respect for the 3 Japanese women working the check-in counter for AA. Some worked more than 24 hours straight to try and accommodate the stranded passengers. All flights were cancelled and they were screamed at by rude passengers. Some just couldn't accept that they could not board a flight that does not exist. Somehow the employees were able to keep their cool and security only had to approach one time. We were sure to let them know how much they were appreciated.