CINCINNATI — Though thousands of miles away, the shock of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that rocked Japan Friday is being felt by some here in the Tri-State.
By people like Anne Golden, of Mt. Lookout: She called Japan home for years, living in Kumamoto — the city hit hardest by the quake — as a teacher.
She said she made life-long friends there, and has gone back to visit as recently as last July.
“It was like a homecoming,” she said of her recent visit. “You couldn’t ask for nicer people in your second hometown.”
Now, looking back through old photos carries with it a bittersweetness.
“Major, major damage and people trapped in rubble,” she sad. “I can’t imagine that this is so close to where I spent so much time.”
For Golden, an event so far away hits very close to home. She was in Kumamoto when a 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit last summer.
“In the middle of the night, the building was swaying just like this, and we didn’t know what it was,” she recalled. “I thought it was a major wind gust, but then when it didn’t stop, and I couldn’t hear anything, I knew something was going on.”
It was the biggest earthquake her friends could remember, she said.
That is, until now.
“the still don’t know the extent of the damage and who’s missing,” she said.
“It’s really sobering.”
Golden said she is still trying to contact some of the people she knows living in Kumamoto.
