FORMER CAPE RESIDENT OK AFTER QUAKE

Gary Rust Jr. and his family live just 40 miles from Kobe, Japan, the city devastated by an earthquake this week.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Rust, formerly of Cape Girardeau, said he and his family are fine, but destruction isn't hard to find.

Rust, his wife, Suzuyo, and children, Julia, 9, and Sho, 3, live in Osaka, Japan. He works in marketing and fund raising for the Osaka International School.

He was in Tokyo when the earthquake hit Tuesday. The shaking woke Suzuyo and the children.

"Our refrigerator moved three or four feet," Rust said. "That gives you some idea of the intensity."

The quake knocked out telephone lines for a time, and he was unable to contact his family.

"When I saw the television it looked more like a war zone," he said. "Then my big concern was trying to get back to Osaka."

He took the bullet train as far as he could then rode a smaller commuter train to Osaka.

"Japan is such an advanced country," Rust said. "When something like this knocks out the infrastructure supports, you really miss it."

Parts of the railway system are down because rails were damaged in the quake. A section of highway crumbled, causing trouble for motorists.

However, he said, for most people life continues near normal.

"It's like being in Cape during a flood," he said. "How you experienced the flood depended on how close to the river you were. Some parts of the city look normal, but you don't have to go far to find the devastation."

Earthquakes are more common in the northern part of Japan, around Tokyo. People were surprised by such a strong earthquake at Kobe.

The high death count is partly due to the dense population of the area. Kobe has a population of 1.5 million people. The greater Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area is home to 12 to 15 million people.

Rust said, "We're lucky because we don't have anyone involved who we are trying to locate."

Rust has been impressed with the calmness of the Japanese people.

"You don't sense any panic," he said. "People here are fairly calm about it. I have always been intrigued with the calmness that people face disaster."

Also similar to the Midwest flooding, Rust said people are coming from all parts of Japan to help.

Rust is the son of Gary and Wendy Rust of Cape Girardeau.