Community Corner

RB High Senior's Family in Japan OK After Getting Caught in 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake

Corey Permann, 18, has lots of family in Japan, but all are reportedly doing well after the massive earthquake.

An uncle was on the train when the earthquake hit, leaving him stranded for hours. A cousin had not been able to speak to his wife because of downed phone systems. But in spite of these setbacks, all of Rancho Bernardo High School senior family in Japan appears to be doing well after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit the country Friday.

"Our family is fine," said Carilyn Long, Permann's mother who is half-Japanese and spent some of her childhood in the country. "It's absolutely devastating, [but] that culture there, their people really will pull together."

The earthquake struck off the east coast of Honshu, Japan's main island.

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Permann, who has two older siblings, has made multiple trips to Japan and plans to study at Philadelphia-based Temple University's Tokyo campus in the fall. A note on the website for the Tokyo campus said that all buildings have been "confirmed safe," but classes were canceled and the campus was closed Friday.

Long said the latest earthquakes don't make her worried about having her youngest son heading to Japan in the fall. "We're going to have them here, too," Long said, adding her family will be putting together a new earthquake preparedness box Saturday.

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Long, who grew up an hour outside of Tokyo in Saitama, said she has many cousins and an aunt and uncle in Japan living near Saitama and Osaka. The uncle on the train was on his way to Long's grandmother's house, she said.

She hadn't heard from him directly about the experience, but imagined the earthquake would have affected riders because the trains are often packed with people standing, Long said.

"I'm sure there was a little bit of panic," she said. The older generations across Japan are less likely to panic about the earthquake because they've been through them before, Long said.

She also said one of her cousins who lives in a 30-story apartment building described the quake as the biggest one he'd ever felt. "We have never ever felt like they did on this one," she said.

But overall, Long said she believes that the Japanese culture of giving will help all those affected pull through. People who aren't generous and helpful—"We call them takers"—are looked at as black sheep, she said.

"[People] will pull together and do what they need to do," she said.


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