‘Everyone was terrified’: Cairns resident on harrowing earthquake experience

A group of Cairns friends holidaying in Japan were left shaken when their ski lodge was rocked by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake on New Year’s Day.

Cairns locals Sacha Joseph, Mitch Naylor, Leigh Naylor, Callan Parsons, Janie Bordonaro-Hunter, Jake Stefani, Blair King, Jan Jan Corpuz, Katelyn Lavell, Jamie Naylor, Emily Bremner and their female friend arrived in the ski town of Hakuba, Japan only one day before a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the western coast. Picture: Blair King

A group of Cairns friends holidaying in Japan were left shaken when their ski lodge was rocked by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake on New Year’s Day.

Cairns graphic designer Blair King, her boyfriend and ten of her close friends from Cairns had just arrived in Hakuba, a ski town roughly 96km away from the earthquake’s epicentre, the day before when the building began to shake around them.

“The two-storey house began violently shaking and the noise was like being directly under a high-speed train line,” Ms King said.

“Everyone was yelling for each other and running for the front door.

“Outside, all of the powerlines were swinging like they were about to snap.

“We had a clear view of the chair lift that takes skiers up the mountain and we spotted two of the other residents stuck up there screaming while it swayed.

Ms King said although, as Cairns residents, they were all acclimatised to natural disasters it was nothing like they had ever experienced.

“Everyone was terrified,”

“The thought of an avalanche being triggered was in the background of all of our minds.”

Cairns locals Sacha Joseph, Mitch Naylor, Leigh Naylor, Callan Parsons, Janie Bordonaro-Hunter, Jake Stefani, Blair King, Jan Jan Corpuz, Katelyn Lavell, Jamie Naylor, Emily Bremner and their female friend arrived in the ski town of Hakuba, Japan only one day before a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the western coast. Picture: Blair King

The group received a warning alert to their phones seconds after the effects could be felt.

“Everyone’s phones screamed out a loud warning siren with a message that read ‘EMERGENCY ALERT: Strong shaking is expected soon. Stay calm and seek shelter’,” Ms King said.

Another two messages were sent shortly after the initial quake.

“Those two were for quakes in the 5.4 magnitude range and luckily not as intense, but still extremely triggering.”

Ms King said they were still feeling the effects days on.

“There has been 60 smaller earthquakes and aftershocks since the 7.6 magnitude one and everyone is really on edge,” she said.

“The tremors are smaller ranging from 3 to 5 in magnitude – the most recent was around 2am on Tuesday night which woke a lot of us up.”

The group of young travellers are safe and will remain in Hakuba until their flight home this weekend.

“The flood of messages and check-ins from friends and family all over Australia has been overwhelming,” Ms King said.

“We are still very shaken up.

“The owner of our ski lodge is an Australian resident who has lived here for over a decade and has been amazing in making sure we are all safe and comfortable.”

The earthquake’s death toll has now reached 77 in Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture with search efforts still underway to rescue survivors.

Originally published as ‘Everyone was terrified’: Cairns resident on harrowing earthquake experience