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Local Woman On Business In Tokyo Survives Quake

DETROIT (WWJ) -  Some Metro Detroiters have made it home after being in Japan at the time the earthquake hit.  WWJ Newsradio 950's Beth Fisher spoke with a local woman who was in Tokyo on business during the earthquake.

On her first trip to Japan, Gretchen Komarzec, of Chesterfield Township, had just gotten back to her hotel room on the 33rd floor when the quake hit and she ran down 33 flights of stairs and out of the building.

"The ground starting shaking again, and we didn't know at that  point how serious everything was, I had never been in an earthquake before, so I was just extremely anxiety driven,and very scared and people just kind of started making their way in the street," says Komarzec.

She and a couple of other colleagues took trains for hours to get to the airport and on a flight home.  Now, Komarzec has mixed feelings.

"I'm so happy to be home, but I'm so sad for what is going on there-I was with engineers that were supposed to be on the same flight as us and they were not on that flight, so I'm sad that they are still there," says Komarzec.

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