Her family should be safe from the tsunami. Her brother-in-law & sister would have been at work, & they're going to have trouble getting home. Too far to walk, & the trains stopped.
Mother would probably have been at home. No family under threat from the tsunami, I think. Grandfathers house might be (but tsunami should be smaller there - down south), but there shouldn't be anyone in it, & the valuables are with her uncle. Grandfather's in a solid modern nursing home on a hill a safe distance from the epicentre.
Friend in the north-east, who I've met in Tokyo - she'll worry about her & her husband & children when she's checked on the family.
Phone net is jammed, still can't get through.
Ah - Roger Musson of the impressive beard is on the Beeb. 6th biggest earthquake measured. Biggest in Japan. Thousands of times the energy of the Canterbury quake.
Cold up north. Going to be miserable for those washed out. Can't fly in aid to Sendai. Airport washed over by the tsunami. Buildings stood up to it, but everything else washed away.
Been in a few small ones over there. The biggest shook the house enough for Mrs Bs mother to switch off the gas cooker & run to the safest spot in the house, crying "Jishin!". It's the only one I've been in which triggered the emergency procedure - TV channels all switched to the regional emergency control centre. The epicentre of that was on the other side of Tokyo, in Chiba, & from what I've seen on TV it shook Tokyo less than this one did - & this one's hundreds of km away.
State of emergency declared, of course.
