Community Corner

Just Back from Japan, Alameda County Official Urges Locals to Give

County Administrator Susan Muranishi was in Japan during its devastating earthquake. Now, she is encouraging locals to donate to the county's disaster relief fund.

At first, Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi thought the tires on her tour bus had burst. 

Muranishi was shuttling between meetings in central Tokyo, with a delegation of Japanese-American leaders, at the end of a week-long trip that included meet-and-greets with local business owners and elected officials.

It was after 5 p.m. on Friday, March 11, when the bus pulled into the hotel parking lot for the next round of meetings. That's when the earthquake hit.  

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"The bus started rocking and rolling," Muranishi said. "It was like a rollercoaster ride for about two minutes." 

The U.S. Geologicial Survey recently upgraded the earthquake that struck off northern Japan from an 8.9 to a 9.0, making it among the strongest in recorded history. Yet, contrasted with scenes of devastation wrought by the tsunami in the north, there have been tales of life proceeding almost normally in Tokyo in the wake of the temblor and its dozens of aftershocks. 

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"After that initial shaking stopped, we were escorted into the building and told our meeting would proceed, because it was on the first floor," Muranishi said. 

Just as the meeting was about to get under way, a strong aftershock rattled the hotel. The administrator described watching, through the hotel's plate glass windows, cranes sway on nearby highrises. 

For Muranishi, who remembers running down the stairs from the fifth floor of the Alameda County office building, in Oakland after the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the Tokyo earthquake seemed somewhat mild in comparison.  

"The shaking subsided and we went back into our meeting," she said. "It was very orderly and calm. People were crossing with the streetlights." 

Only later did she and others become aware of the tsunami in Northern Japan. Now back in Oakland, she's urging locals to donate.  

"Our resolve now is to really work with the relief effort in the U.S.," Muranishi said. 

In response, the county Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to reactivate the Alameda County Disaster Relief Fund.

First formed in response to 9/11, the fund allows the county's 9,000 employees to donate their vacation time, in addition to cash, to the victims of major disasters, from the 2004 tsunami to the 2010 quake in Haiti. 

Officials stressed that anyone can donate to the fund. Half the proceeds from the 2011 Women's Hall of Fame event will go toward the relief effort. 

One hundred percent of donations will be directed to citizen relief and rebuilding efforts through the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California and the U.S.-Japan Council, according to information released by the county.

Cash donations may be contributed via personal check, payable to the Alameda County Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Auditor-Controller Agency, 1221 Oak St., Room 238, Oakland, CA, 94612.

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