Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOGAN — A Utah State University student who travels the world talking about agriculture experienced the earthquake in Japan nearly three weeks ago and survived a 26 hour ordeal.
We watched the building start to shake. Water lines begin to break, water towers and tops of buildings start to spill all over the place. For that first hour we felt aftershocks, some that were pretty strong.
–Braden Jensen, USU student
#jensen_quote
Agriculture senior Braden Jensen and his group arrived in Japan the day before the earthquake hit. Their trip started out as an opportunity to attend an agriculture conference at Tsukuba University, but then it turned into a scary adventure.
Jensen and a group were touring a museum in Tokyo on March 11 when they felt the ground move. At first they thought it was a fast-moving train.
"You could see the cars just begin to shake, and so we went running out from beneath the platform — because it was a sky train," Jensen said.
"We watched the building start to shake," he continued. "Water lines begin to break, water towers and tops of buildings start to spill all over the place. For that first hour we felt aftershocks, some that were pretty strong."
Jensen and his group spent the next 26 hours enduring Japan's freezing temperatures, wandering around trying to stay safe during a natural disaster in a foreign country. The group made plans to grab as much food as they possibly could, just in case.
"We went into the convenience stores, grabbed some food and also some water," Jensen said. "It was just amazing how much food would be gone off the shelves — all your instant food, all your water. It just started to be vacant in those stores."
"There was a moment in the middle of the earthquake where I was a little bit (scared)," he said. "I've experienced earthquakes before in South American, but nothing of that intensity."
Jensen says it could have been worse. When he got back to his room, he was relieved to see his laptop hadn't fallen off of the desk and he was able to connect with his family.
Email: niyabma@ksl.com
