(April 1, 2011) — “We didn’t have contact for two days, but we have Japanese TV stations to keep us updated,” sophomore Andrea Nino said. Nino’s family lives mainly in Tokyo, Japan, and they felt the jolt of the 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan on March 11. Nino’s family described the earthquake as a long and hard shaking motion that was toppling everything in sight. The earthquake caused a 30-foot tsunami around Sendai, where Nino’s uncle’s in-laws live on a hill. They experienced water damage, but their house was not completely lost. No one in Nino’s immediate family has died except her grandmother’s friend, but her family is currently living in her uncle’s small house in Tokyo. According to the Washington Post, as of March 25, the death toll has risen to about 10,000 and continues to rise every day as new bodies are found under the rubble. Unlike Nino, junior Spencer Breitborde has family in Japan, but has no idea how his family is doing. “I wouldn’t know because they are non-immediate family and I haven’t talked to them because they only know Japanese,” Breitborde said. Breitborde has met his family before, but due to the language barrier they never talk to each other. Breitborde doesn’t know if his family was affected by the tsunami or earthquake, but he said he would donate money and clothes if they needed anything. At 8 a.m. on March 11, the weaker tsunami hit the coast of California at the Santa Cruz Harbor and Crescent City, damaging over 100 boats and sinking about 17. According to the Los Angeles Times, the earthquake-triggered tsunami caused at least $50 million in damages and took the life of one man in California. “I wasn’t too worried about the tsunami moving over to the coast of Southern California because the waves would just be three feet higher,” junior Veudy Cen said. Although Cen wasn’t concerned about the tsunami, he is worried that we may have an earthquake. “We live near a fault and we’ve seen seismic activity before, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we have an earthquake,” Cen said. The tsunami and earthquake also damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Explosions have taken place in reactors one through four, causing fires, radiation leaks and many evacuations. Many Americans feared the radiation would make its way to the United States, but according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Japan’s nuclear emergency doesn’t present a danger to California residents because it is localized within an 18-mile radius. Nino said her family in Japan is not as worried as she is about the radiation. Nino is planning on spending half the summer in Japan with her family and is concerned about the radiation in the atmosphere. “I’m so worried because I don’t know how bad the radiation levels will be in a few months when I go and how it will affect me,” Nino said.