Near Earthquake Epicenter—

Newtown Family Gets News Of Daughter In Japan

By Nancy K. Crevier

After a nerve-wracked week, Susan and Doug Mac Hugh were patched through “for 20 seconds,” Tuesday evening, March 15, on the phone to their daughter Emma by a friend in Tokyo, only the second time they have communicated with her since the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan March 11. Emma Mac Hugh, a 2006 graduate of Newtown High School and 2010 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Yonkers, N.Y., is teaching English in the town of Kami-machi Kami-gun through the Japan Exchange and Teaching program (JET). She had previously studied abroad in Japan, during the spring 2009 semester. The village is about one hour north of Sendai, the epicenter of the earthquake.

A very emotional Doug Mac Hugh expressed to The Bee on Monday, March 14, the immense relief that he and his wife, Susan, felt when they received a brief text on Friday, March 11, from Emma: “I’m alive!”

“We spoke via phone immediately after the tsunami struck,” said Mr Mac Hugh. “She told us she was alive and well and cold, and was with other teachers from the JET program. That was Friday, at 3 am,” he said. The brief conversation conveyed that the JET group was without power or gasoline at the time, but that they had food and water.

Just knowing that their daughter is alive is wonderful, Mr Mac Hugh said, but they continue to have grave concerns about her continued well-being. Kami-machi Kami-gun is also about 250 miles away from the Fukushima nuclear power reactor that has experienced a partial meltdown and serious stability problems.

In speaking with the American embassy over the weekend, Mr Mac Hugh was told that there is no plan to extract the teachers from where they are, “because they are ‘safe’ there, for now,” said Mr Mac Hugh. There is so much devastation, he was told, that the people who are “well” are not the priority right now. The embassy has advised him that traveling to Japan to try to reach his daughter is inadvisable at this time, due to the extent of the destruction.

“Even if I get to Tokyo, that’s as far as I could get. They don’t want anyone within 20 kilometers [12½ miles] of the reactors, and I would have to go through that area. Emma is two and a half hours north of Tokyo,” he said.

Mr Mac Hugh, a playwright, screenwriter, and instructor of acting at Sarah Lawrence College, is on a two-week break from school.

“That makes it even harder to stay put here, when I have all of this time, and I want to go to her,” he said. “There’s a lot of speculation on our part, of course,” he said.

The phone call Tuesday evening answered the Mac Hughs’ Monday prayer that “Another phone call from her would be the best thing we could hope for now.” Along with a short e-mail they were able to send to her in Tokyo, Tuesday night, the phone call also clarified, ever so slightly, questions that the Mac Hughs had.

“Emma and three friends are making an exodus across the country, trying to get south,” Mr Mac Hugh told The Bee on Wednesday. “She spent the night in Sendai and hopes to catch a bus from there to get a short jump plane to Tokyo, and then to get out from Narita,” he said. Although he believes that his daughter had hoped to be able to remain in Japan, they are making alternative plans. In the e-mail he expressed a desire for her “immediate evacuation from that area and ultimately to get her self home. Which she is doing,” he said.

“It was so good to hear her voice,” said Mr Mac Hugh.

The Mac Hughs have been told that a number of the 2,000 Americans teaching there have yet to be accounted for. Knowing that JET is devoting resources to accounting for all of the teachers is somewhat of a comfort to them, he said, and makes the frustrating wait more bearable.

What keeps their spirits buoyed as they continue to keep vigil by their phones, said Mr Mac Hugh, is knowing the inner strength of their daughter.

“She is a survivor,” he said. “My daughter is a strong, resilient, positive force of nature in her own right and will survive this and be better equipped to make a impact on the future,” said Mr Mac Hugh. “I can see her, in my mind, keeping things calm, and handing out food and water. That’s who she is. She is a very strong young woman.”

The Mac Hughs are grateful for the support shown them by friends and families. “Any positive energy people can send her way, would be great,” he said, and added, “We wish only the best for the people of Japan, who are showing such order, kindness, and humanity.”

As The Bee went to press on Thursday, the Mac Hugh family received notice that Emma had arrived safely in Tokyo. Through the assistance of Mr Mac Hugh’s sister-in-law, who flies military to all destinations where soldiers are active, the family has been able  to get her a flight out  of Japan on Friday morning. She is expected to arrive at JFK airport in New York Friday morning, EDST.