South Surrey resident Akiko Sugawara is among the B.C. residents anxiously watching ongoing coverage of the huge earthquake in Japan.
Sugawara and her two children just returned home from her hometown in Sendai, Japan after visiting her parents' rice farm there last week and was frantic when Friday's quake – measuring 8.9 – devastated the region.
Sugawara's parents managed to email her from a cellphone, her husband, Daniel Pape, said.
"They're OK. Everything in their house is smashed and destroyed. But they're alive," he said.
"There's no power. No running water. And they said it's quite cold in the area."
Sugawara said her mother expressed shock when she was told of the devastating tsunami damage in the news.
"Because of the lack of communication, she was certainly not in the know," Pape said. "She mentioned if she knew that was happening all around her that she would be in a panic along with the other survivors in the area."
Sugawara is also worried about her sister-in-law and best friend, both of whom also live in the Sendai area but have not yet been heard from.
"We're just kind of on our toes," Pape said.