Relatives wait for news after Japanese earthquake disaster

Summary of story from NWI Times, 10.3.11 and The Sun, 12.3.11

Three Japanese women living in northwest Indiana, can breathe a sigh of relief. None of their relatives were caught up in the massive earthquake that hit Japan on Friday or the tsunami that followed.

One of them – a teacher – had narrowly missed exposing her students to the record-breaking disaster, as she takes a group to her native Japan every year.

But not everyone has been that fortunate.

The Sun reports that parents of a British woman missing in the Japanese city of Sendai were are waiting anxiously for news of their daughter.

Hannah Craggs, 27, went to Japan to teach English, and days ago blogged after a smaller quake.

Her father, Gary, said: “We’re very worried as she spends all her time on the coast.”

British Alison Jambert told how her nine-year-old daughter cycled from her Tokyo school to meet her during the quake.

She said: “Charlotte got to the office as we evacuated. There were women screaming but Charlotte was saying, ‘Don’t panic’.

Alan Scully, 38, from Glasgow, was preparing to flee Tokyo with his six-months pregnant wife – but faced a struggle with transport schedules scrapped.

“Many people are stranded, sleeping on the street as all trains are cancelled,” he said. International flights were also cancelled and Tokyo’s main airport was closed.

And a deadly radiation leak has sparked by a huge blast at a nuclear power station is threatening a second catastrophe after yesterday’s tsunami quake left at least 574 people in Japan dead.