A Wisconsin woman is eyewitness to Japan’s catastrophe. Elizabeth Shafto is a 2002 graduate of Loyal High School now teaching English at a school in Tokyo. Phone service has been intermittent at best but her Internet seems to be working fairly well, and she e-mailed some comments on the quake and aftermath. She said at first she was not too alarmed – but the quake quickly became severe. “All I could hear was banging and cracking noises. The Japanese style windows went back and forth on their tracks. It was so loud that when my six tall bookcase fell on the other side of the partition in my room, I hardly realized.”
Shafto remains at home, since her school has canceled classes for the remainder of this week. “We have been told that there is a seventy percent chance to have another large earthquake for the next 24 hours, so everyone is preparing for the worst. So far I have been very lucky in regards to food. However things like milk, water, bread, tea and rice are almost impossible to find.” She said there are rotating three to four hour blackouts to conserve electricity, and people are waiting hours in line to board trains which are running on limited schedules.
AUDIO: Elizabeth Shafto (4:05)
Bob Meyer, Brownfield
