Athlone businessman talks of 'hell on earth'

A trip to Japan for an Athlone businessman and his family turned into a frightening experience when they were caught up in the huge earthquake and tsunami that struck the country last Friday. Noel Quinn, his wife Maire and their two young children aged five and three, were in the Chiba prefecture of Japan, near Tokyo, enjoying a short holiday after a business trip when the two natural disasters hit the region. "We were frightened more than ever before. Hell is nothing to what is happening over there," said Noel. "On the day of the tsunami we were just a family on a beach, it was a beautiful day. We left the beach and went back up to the hotel to get a picnic to take back to the beach. The kids were all excited, it was a lovely day. We had rented out a mobile phone and it rang, a lady we know invited us for lunch at 1.30pm, her house was five miles inland. We first said no because we had the picnic, but she insisted and came down and collected us. It was the best decision of our lives, if we'd stayed on the beach we were gone - I'd say the bag of cheese, ham and bread is somewhere now in the Pacific." The earthquake struck as the Quinn family were having lunch with the local couple. "It was like walking on jelly, nothing was solid anywhere, there was no solid ground, just trembling. I have never experienced anything like it before. The Japanese couple were even frightened... The water, electricity and phonelines went out." He said they went outside in case the house started to collapse in on them. Between the two main earthquakes, there were a number of tremors. About 30 minutes after the first tremor, the tsunami came. "The Town Hall loudspeaker announced in Japanese that there had been an earthquake and there was a tsunami on the way, to keep away from the beach. An elderly man got on a bike, he decided to cycle down to have a look at the tsunami, he never came back," remembered Noel. The Quinns were unable to make contact with family back home and spent a nerve wrecking two nights with friends experiencing a number of aftershocks, until their flight on Sunday. Luckily, the hotel they had stayed in escaped major damage and they were able to retrieve their passports, tickets and belongings. Noel said he was glad they got out when they did. "The second world war did as much as that earthquake, it was like a four-pronged attack - there was the earthquake, the tsunami, the fires which are a big problem and now the nuclear threat," he said. Noel owns the Hynes Quinn Driving School in Athlone, Longford and Roscommon, and travelled to Japan to negotiate with a company about setting up a particular kind of driving school in the Midlands, which involves a compound where people can learn to drive. He said he was struck by how many past pupils of the driving school phoned to enquire about their safety and he thanked them for their concern. He also said that the Irish, British and Japanese Embassy were a great help to them. Since getting home, Noel has become a bit of a local celebrity, while his kids he said, are well recovered from the experience. He added that he fully intends to do business again in Japan once things have returned to normal. "Without a shadow of a doubt, nothing will stop us. The Japanese are good, hardworking, honest people."