Nanaimo woman: Carnage in Japan like ‘giant had crumpled it’

SEATTLE (NEWS1130) – She saw the city crumble, and she saw the wave wash over it. Marley Daviduk of Nanaimo was in Japan filming with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society when the quake hit.

“We were in the town of Otsuchi and we were there documenting the Dall’s Porpoise slaughter,” she explains. “It was like nothing I ever felt. I mean, we had to hold onto the cars to stand up.”

The cameras kept rolling as the city crumbled. “We sat and watched and filmed the entire thing and we just watched the city get completely destroyed.”

The quake was followed by a giant tsunami. “We’ve got pictures of the wave coming in and going over the top of a house. And the house looks like a grape compared to the wave.”

Daviduk and the other Sea Shepherd members saw the aftermath of all that destruction, walking through the ruins. Cars had been folded in half. “The word ‘rubble’ doesn’t even describe it. To me it’s like some giant scooped the city up in its hand and crumpled it up and sprinkled it back down.”

She saw lots of bodies in the ruins. Despite the fear and misery, and with frequent aftershocks rattling nerves and unsafe buildings, Daviduk says the people of Otsuchi were very kind. “What was really amazing is we came to a sort-of refugee camp. People were gathering stuff to burn. They had a fire going from the broken houses and they had rice cooked. When we came down the hill and they saw us they gave us food, and I gave some of our blankets to them.”

Daviduk returned Monday, catching a flight that flight that landed in Seattle.

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