Stephanie Krulicki, the Athabasca Rotary Club’s outbound exchange student in Japan, is safe and heading home following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that devastated the country last Friday.
“She has made it to the Tokyo airport,” confirmed Rotary district governor Jackie Hobal Monday. “We expect her to be arriving in Toronto within 24 hours.”
Krulicki resided in the city of Shirakawa-shi, which is southwest of the quake’s epicenter, off the east coast near Honshu, 400 km northeast of Tokyo. Her location was also inland, protecting her from the perilous effects of the tsunami.
“She was in a part of Japan where they hadn’t lost their electricity,” said Hobal. “So she had fairly regular access to the internet … that was a relief.”
Athabasca Rotarian Dan Dennis sent an email to all club members last Friday indicating that Krulicki was OK and that she had slept in her car rather than her house in an effort to stay safe from the various foreshocks and aftershocks that shook Japan before and after the event.
Dennis’s email also confirmed that the club had been in contact with Krulicki’s parents, who no longer reside in Athabasca, Rotary’s District Youth Exchange, and Hobal.
“We’re confident that Stephanie’s going to make it,” said Hobal.
Krulicki’s parents will meet her at the Toronto airport when she arrives.
Friday’s earthquake was the largest in Japan since the beginning of the 19th century when records were first kept of such incidents. The rumbles began at 2:46 p.m. Japanese time, and were doubly destructive as it created a tsunami that caused extensive damage and several hundred deaths in the country.
Aerial images of the waves, which reached 30 feet in height, were surreal, as ocean-water plowed from the coast inland, flooding the region and sweeping away all it could in its path.
Several large foreshocks preceded the quake, beginning last Wednesday and totaling four, all with a magnitude of six of greater.
Three hundred and fifty people were reported dead in the hours following the disaster, but over the weekend that number had climbed dramatically, with estimates approaching 10,000.
Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan declared a nuclear emergency due to damage to the Fukushima power plant’s cooling system sustained as a result of the earthquake. Two hydrogen explosions occurred at the plant over the course of three days – Monday morning being the latest – as a result of the reactor’s rising temperatures.
Hobal also pointed out that there is another Rotary Club exchange student from the district in Japan – Karly Hilgers from Grande Prairie – who also has a plane ticket to come home, but with her being three hours from Tokyo and the train and roads wiped out by the earthquake and tsunami, it has been difficult for her to reach the airport.
Hobal said Hilgers apparently found a way to Tokyo with an American exchange student. She is scheduled to fly out on Wednesday.
Dennis extended the Rotary Club’s sympathies, saying, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan toady.”
