the frantic calls began, to no avail. what happened when you tried his phone? it would say all circuits are busy and you d get a busy signal. then the minutes went by. uh-huh. then an hour and two hours. what did that feel like? hell. as a parent, you never think, oh, my child has been killed. out don t think that. you just wait. you just wait and pray for the best. remember, zach had wanted to come home months earlier, but terry and john had encouraged him to stay, to live up to his commitment. how much did you beat yourself up about that? i did. seemed right then, but now? the helplessness of we re way over here and there s not a thing we can do. georgia s family in new zealand including cousin chelsea were just as scared and just as
in nashville, indiana, john and terry whitcomb had barely had a sip of their morning tea when the news jolted them awake. this is a very powerful earthquake. the images are stunning out of japan. an epic earthquake hit northern japan, 9.0, near the top end of the richter scale. then a huge tsunami crashing up thcoast. it was like watching a disaster movi this one horribly real. and john and terry s son zach was now right in the middle of it. what did you think? unreal. this can t be happening. are you sure it s where zach is? are you sure it s in the same region? we were looking at maps, and everything was pointing to, yeah, it s exactly where zach is. we just prayed. enormous waves you see here were hitting noda and kuji, the towns where zach and georgia were teaching.
so coincidence, love, disaster. there is no fairness about these things, they just are. zach brannon turned 23 in 2010. i just picked up a degree in history from a college in indiana, no idea what to do next. and then he saw an offer for a job in japan, a two-year stint teaching english to elementary school kids, no japanese language skills required. why japan of all places? i don t think there s any rhyme or reason to it. i think it was just offered to me and i jumped on it. the town they sent him to in japan called kuji, a long way from his hometown of nashville, nashville, indiana. on sundays he skyped with his parents john and terry. john is a musician and terry a school guidance counselor. how did he seem to be doing? it was rough at first, the
the towns where zach and georgia were teaching. the frantic calls began, to no avail. what happened when you tried his phone? it would say all circuits are busy and you d get a busy signal. then the minutes went by. uh-huh. then an hour and two hours. what did that feel like? hell. as a parent, you never think, oh, my child has been killed. out don t think that. you just wait. you just wait and pray for the best. remember, zach had wanted to come home months earlier, but terry and john had encouraged him to stay, to live up to his commitment. how much did you beat yourself up about that? i did. seemed right then, but now? the helplessness of we re way over here and there s not a thing we can do. georgia s family in new zealand including cousin chelsea
2011. in nashville, indiana, john and terry whitcomb had barely had a sip of their morning tea when the news jolted them awake. this is a very powerful earthquake. the images are stunning out of japan. an epic earthquake hit northern japan, 9.0, near the top end of the richter scale. then a huge tsunami crashing up the coast. it was like watching a disaster movie, this one horribly real. and john and terry s son zach was now right in the middle of it. what did you see? unreal. this can t be happening. are you sure it s where zach is? are you sure it s in the same region? we were looking at maps, and everything was pointing to, yeah, it s exactly where zach is. we just prayed. enormous waves you see here were hitting noda and kuj gee,