Survivor Describes ‘Scare of a Lifetime’ : Earthquake: A young woman’s letter to her parents in the United States tells of panic, confusion and gratitude.

Lisa, a young Japanese American who has been working in this area for a year, wrote a letter to her parents back home in Washington state a few days ago describing “the scare of a lifetime.”

It is one person’s account of the Kobe earthquake. Lisa, who prefers that her last name not be used, was unhurt in the earthquake, and when the Hanshin railway is repaired and runs again to this Kobe suburb, she and her roommate will be able to commute to work and move back into their mostly undamaged apartment.

Lisa’s story is similar to those of others who lived through the quake without injury or great damage to personal belongings.

Still, as for millions of others, the temblor had a profound effect on her. The 23-year-old woman told her parents: “It doesn’t take even a second of reflection to know how much I have to be grateful for at a time when so many people have lost everything. I feel guilty for being so lucky.”

Writing two days after the quake, she recalled the terrifying moment of the temblor and hours of stress as the extent of the calamity became clear.

“I woke up at 5:45 a.m., as I do every workday, and one minute and 40 seconds later, the world around me was changed,” she wrote.

“My first reaction was panic--I had just turned on the light in the bathroom, and a split-second later, I heard a huge crashing sound, the electricity flickered off, and I grabbed the towel rack in front of me to keep from being knocked off my feet and into a wall. . . .

“Neither my roommate nor I knew what to do next--a couple of books I had bought when I first came to Japan included sections on ‘What to Do in the Event of an Earthquake,’ which I had briefly skimmed over, never in my wildest dreams imagining that I would actually need this information. But neither included information as to what to do afterwards. . . .

“Four of us descended into the courtyard, where people were slowly gathering, and listened for a few minutes to someone’s radio, but the news wasn’t telling us anything that we didn’t already know. There was a strong smell of gas in the street . . . so we didn’t venture out of the complex.”

The electricity came back on within two hours, but there was no gas, no water and little real news.

“Around 10 a.m., my roommate went out in search of water and realized that the damage in the houses around us was quite extensive. The old houses in our neighborhood built out of wood were completely destroyed--there is nothing left of them except a pile of rubble and occasionally something recognizable as the roof. Most of the other old buildings are obviously unsafe--some two-story buildings collapsed, leaving only one story. . . .

“There was a break in one of the gas mains a few blocks away from us, fire closer than we thought, and many of the streets were impassable due to the rubble. . . .

“From the apartment itself, we were able to see the smoked plumes of a few fires, and the sirens of emergency vehicles trying to make their way through the streets were sounding continuously, adding to the feeling of unease.

“It seemed as if at least five helicopters were constantly overhead, and though no one was dropping bombs from the sky, the general atmosphere resembled what I imagine it must be like in the middle of a war. . . .

“Around 12:30 the phone--which hadn’t worked all morning--rang, and both my roommate and I were able to call home and say that we were OK. After that, the phone worked only intermittently, so we were both grateful that we had been able to make those calls.

“Early in the afternoon the news began reporting deaths and injuries, numbers which seemed to multiply exponentially by the hour. It soon became apparent that Ashiya was one of the areas hardest hit, and as we watched the news, we realized more and more how lucky we had been. The area hospitals were overflowing, and fires seemed to continue endlessly.

“We ventured outside the complex once more that afternoon in search of food and water, but without luck. Many of the small stores in the neighborhood were too heavily damaged to consider opening, and those that opened closed soon afterward as their supplies quickly ran out. . . . “No one slept well that night. Four of us gathered in one of the apartments, but the rumbling aftershocks, which came at least once an hour, kept everyone from sleeping. The television was left on all night, and even dozing, somewhere in the background, an announcer was reading off a seemingly endless list of names of those confirmed dead.”

Lisa’s employer evacuated her and her roommate the next day in an arduous 7 1/2-hour ride to Osaka, less than 20 miles away.

“Being at work every day provides an overlying feeling of normalcy,” Lisa wrote to her parents, “but underneath is residual unease. There is some guilt there too, somewhere.

“More than anything, though, I am grateful.”