Earthquake diary

January 17th ‘951

Kobe2

5:30am3

I can’t sleep! This stupid hotel room is so hot, and there so isn’t any air in this tiny space right here where my mouth is. I think I’m going to suffocate. 4

Poor Mrs. Hurtz. She probably won’t be sleeping in this heat, and what with those headaches of hers, she must be feeling truly awful. And her indigestion. 5

Sometimes I seriously wish we hadn’t come.6

5:407

Oh my word. The room is shaking. What on earth… earthquake. It’s getting worse. Oh my word - Mrs. Hurtz! I have to go get her... Oh my word ---8

7:009

Okay. It’s all over, and really, I feel terrible. You know, when you just can’t think about something, can’t get your mind round it? When you’re just too shocked? Yep. That’s me.10

But man! That was crazy. I was lying there, when the room started shaking, and stuff fell down, and everything was just, like, everywhere. There was this huge, creaking, groaning noise. And I know they say ‘keep calm’ ‘don’t panic’, but that is exactly what I did. Panicked. I did think about Mrs Hurtz, though, and I tried to get through to her. But her part of the corridor was blocked, and I just ran. Down the stairs, I mean. I did know enough not to risk the lift... and I got down in enough time, but they, the hotel people, wouldn’t let me out. It was safer inside, they said, go and hide under this table, they said. So I did, and I stayed there. It was cramped with other passers-by who had run in for shelter. It was so horrible. I only came out when they called me, and the shaking had almost completely stopped. 11

They told me to go see. I really, really didn’t want to, but I found myself walking out. And it wasn’t the same city. There were huge cracks in the road, and cars on their sides, and buildings at weird angles, and fire. So much fire. And this water gushing up from the road, and mingling with the sewage from somewhere else. And the air so thick with dust that I can hardly breathe, and dust is everywhere, on me, on them, on everything. My clothes are ruined.12

So I’m here. Writing by the wall of our hotel, which is lopsided.13

We’re on our way to a local refuge...14

9:0015

I’ve been here for two hours, now. People are coming and going, but I’m stuck here. I truly don’t know what to do. I’ll find out if Mrs Hurtz is okay, if the hotel hasn’t collapsed in the aftershocks we’ve been having – which it probably has – and then, I guess, I’ll go home. no, actually. I feel like somewhere completely different, like Russia, or Iceland. Something like that ---16

Sorry. Someone just gave me a cuppa. I don’t know where they got it from. Maybe there are some supplies round here somewhere. I’m so hungry!!17

Noon18

I said I was hungry. It was a complete lie. Now, I could, literally, eat a horse. 19

2pm 20

We’ve had news. It’s completely safe outside, and there’s food for anyone who’ll lend a hand to the rescue team. I think I’ll give it a go. 21

Oops... they’re going right now....22

3:0023

The building has collapsed. Our hotel. She’s dead. She’s dead, now. She must be. That’s my lifelong friend, guardian, advisor, whatever, gone. Gone, gone, gone. And now I hate this place. Kobe. Japan. Never coming back here – they’ve stolen my Mrs Hurtz!!24

3:3025

This is awful. I feel sick!26

3:4027

Oh, hang on....28

4:0029

I’ve been asking around, and she might not, after all, be dead! Some guys said they saw a middle aged woman with a stick come out of here on a stretcher. Sounds like her, but I don’t want to get my hopes up, but wow. You seriously don’t know how happy I am. I could dance!30

But no, better go dig up some people first.31

5:0032

This is hot work, but man! It is so rewarding. Just to see these people come stumbling out of the wrecks of buildings, faint but happy to be alive. 33

And I’ve been thinking. Like, about my future. I might stay here permanently. I know, I said I hated it, but I only felt thoroughly angry, when I thought Mrs Hurtz was dead. It would be really good to do some voluntary work. Helping people and stuff. Feeding the poor, that sort of thing. That is, once I’ve got my Mrs Hurtz back and safe again, back in good ol’ Tennessee. Back in her lovely home. 34