In this photo released by Nexco East Japan, a worker inspects a caved-in section of the Joban Motorway near Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, after one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded in Japan slammed its eastern coast Friday, March 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Nexco East Japan via kyodo News)
Reporting Sophia Hall
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – In the early morning hours on Friday, 18-year-old Ayumi Kamo received a text message from her friend in Japan with the news.
An 8.9 earthquake had struck Japan sending a tsunami into the Pacific nation, killing hundreds with a death toll that keeps rising. The earthquake didn’t surprise Kamo though.
“It’s like really common in Japan to have, like, earthquakes and, like, tsunamis, but the 8.9 is like a great number. I was really surprised,” Kamo said.
LISTEN: WCBS 880′s Sophia Hall spoke with two students with family in Japan
Luckily for Kamo, she got in touch with her family.
“My relatives live in Osaka and I heard that Osaka didn’t have like much damage, but I was, at first worried until I heard from my mother,” she said.
Stonybrook University student Kotona Okuno’s family was safe from the devastation but her friends weren’t.
“Some of my friends are in Tokyo. I’m worried about them,” Okuno said.
