SEQUIM — Angela and Jerry Busby had made their way across the Pacific Ocean to pick up their three newly adopted children from the Philippines when a layover in Tokyo rocked their return trip to Sequim.
The three children and two parents were trapped for 24 hours in Tokyo’s Narita International Airport after a massive earthquake.
“We had a two-hour layover, and about 20 minutes before boarding was when the earthquake hit,” Angela said.
“It happened really slowly, and then it wasn’t cool anymore,” she said.
“Everything was moving, and the windows were rattling, and we covered the children and laid down right where we were and waited it out.”
She said people were diving under seats right and left but that nothing in their area of the airport fell or broke.
“It just kept getting more and more intense,” she said.
The couple had begun the process in 2009 of adopting Majel, 12, LM, 10, and Mika, 8, into their family, which includes Tanner, 14, Tehya, 12, and Telicia, 10.
They met the children through the Summer of Hope Program, in which children stay with a host family who advocates for their adoption.
The Busbys were the host family. They fell in love with the children and decided to adopt them.
Angela said while the 24 hours at the Tokyo airport were scary and emotional, it also brought the family closer.
“It was neat bonding time for the five of us to go through something like that together,” she said.
The earthquake was only the beginning.
Everyone was evacuated from the airport to the tarmac, where 13,000 people waited for officials to look at the stability of the building.
Eventually, the elderly and those with children — including the Busbys — were taken to buses where they could sit and wait.
“Finally, around 10 [p.m.], they said we could come in because we couldn’t sleep in the buses,” she said.
“So we found this one teeny-tiny spot to lay down.”
By 8 a.m., the airport opened the phone lines for free international calls.
The couple immediately called Susan Parr of Port Angeles — their travel agent — who began working on return arrangements for them.
“At that point, there wasn’t much she could do because there were no flights out,” Angela said.
Eventually, they heard their flight would leave at 3:40 p.m. — exactly 24 hours after they were originally supposed to leave.
The family arrived back in Sequim on Sunday.
“It really is amazing when you go through an experience like that,” Angela said.
“There is such camaraderie with everyone else who goes through it.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
