News
The Chronicle
A5•April 14, 2011
Earthquake sends teacher back to U.S. early By stefanie Avila sPECiAL to tHE CHroniCLE
“it seemed normal to everyone around me…until it wasn’t, all the children started to whimper and the other teachers didn’t know what to do at one point,” said Caroline Cabal, 22, an English teacher that worked in Japan for almost two years up until a week ago.” Japan was beautiful, but once the earthquake hit it wasn’t the same.” Cabal lived in the town of nagano, about 130 miles from the epicenter. Her town felt a high 6 or low 7 on the richter scale. Early that morning, Cabal and her boyfriend, daniel Conglio, 28, were at the market getting breakfast when their phones and the phones
of everyone around them rang. the message read “earthquake warning five minutes,” but since earthquakes are normal in Japan no one really paid much attention to it, and in fact they felt nothing when five minutes passed. the Japanese government sends a message to every cell phone in Japan that is registered for emergencies. Later, Cabal was teaching her first grade class when alarms in the school went off and an announcement on the loudspeaker announced, “Earthquake in five minutes, please do not panic.” this time, the Earth actually shook. Earthquakes usually last about 2-3 minutes; this earthquake lasted 5 minutes. “those were the longest 5 min-
utes of my life,” Cabal said. “it felt like an hour had passed and it was never going to end.” the town of nagano is landlocked and was not effected by the tsunami, but the earthquake left houses broken down the middle with shattered glass everywhere. “We had taken the children outside to the playground to evacuate the building for safety purposes, but after the initial earthquake, all there was were aftershocks, one after another, after another.” Aftershocks reached a 4.3 on the richter scale and recurred often because of the severity of the initial 8.9 quake. they can last up to a month after the initial quake. For Cabal, the aftershocks led
her to miss home. “i couldn’t deal with the shaking; i woke up every morning after the earthquake to an aftershock instead of my alarm clock. i just couldn’t do it. While i was teaching class, there were aftershocks, when i was driving home there were aftershocks, when i was using the bathroom there were aftershocks, i couldn’t do it. i was scared; Americans aren’t trained for this type of lifestyle. i wanted to cry every time.” With the nuclear crisis that spawned from the quake, radiation in tokyo’s tap water spiked to twice the level tolerable for infants, but it remains safe for adults, according to officials. Officials in nagano said that as soon as residents get home from being
outside, clothes should immediately be changed due to possible radiation. Getting food from the supermarket two days after the earthquake was “no picnic,” Cabal said. “I had to fight to get one of the last few bottles of water in the supermarket.” Conglio says that, “it wasn’t so bad right after the earthquake…it just progressively got worse, and then we decided that twiddling our thumbs here in Japan wasn’t going to get any better, so we decided to head back home. it was the only option.” Caroline Cabal is Stef.anie Avila’s cousin.
Public Safety Briefs Compiled By Jessica Lewis
Two students reported to
Public safety on April 6 that they witnessed a student rip down the Gay and Greek sign from the student Center. Public safety responded and they were able to apprehend the student; she was given a summons for her actions.
in her office in Roosevelt Hall, containing money, debit cards, her license, her house and car keys were missing. A report of the theft was given to the Hempstead Police department and an investigation is being conducted.
A student reported to
A student reported
Public safety that while parked in front of nassau suffolk residence Hall, her ex-roommate approached her vehicle and threatened her with physical harm over past differences. Public safety responded and the student received a summons for harassment.
On April 7, a professor
A student reported on April 8, that while she was at Campus Pizza on Hempstead turnpike April 3, she was con-
to Public safety that when he returned to his car parked in netherlands north he saw that two Garmin GPs systems and a Bose sound system was missing from his vehicle, police assistance was declined and an investigation is being conducted.
reported to Public safety that at sometime between 12 and 12:30 p.m. her purse, left unattended
fronted by a female student in the sorority Phi Sigma Sigma and five other members of the sorority. the sorority members got into an altercation with the other student and pulled her hair. A week later she was confronted by the same girl in Hofstra UsA, who threatened to pull her hair out.
While conducting rounds in nassau Hall, an rA reported to Public safety that she smelt the odor of marijuana coming from a room. Public safety responded and keyed into the room and found the resident inside with a strong odor of marijuana, no marijuana was recovered but the student was given a summons.
The RSR assigned to
Colonial square West reported on April 11 that she received sexually harassing phone calls from an unidentified male. An investigation is being conducted.
overturned on the main campus. A search of the area was conducted for the person or persons responsible, but no results were returned.
While on patrol on April 11, a Public Safety Officer observed three cement trash bins and a bench
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3/30/11 12:15 PM