Plymouth Waiting to Hear from Shichigahama Friends

Plymouth residents who have friends in Shichigahama, Japan have tried every form of communication, attempting to contact their friends in Plymouth's sister-city, without any luck, as they watch news footage from the nearby port city of Sendai, where the tsunami caused tremendous damage.

School Committee member Margie Burgess has been to Japan many times as part of the Plymouth delegation and has dozens of friends in the city and surrounding towns. She said she woke last night hearing Japanese voices on the television. Since then, she's been working every line: Facebook, email, cellphones, trying to contact her many friends across the globe, trying to find out if her Shichigahama friends are OK.

Shichigahama is on a peninsula and Burgess is worried that the tsunami could have simply swept the city of 20,000 residents away.

"There was no time," she said. "They were hit by an 8.9 earthquake and 15 minutes later the tsunami struck."

Burgess said she is unsure about whether the next visit by Shichgahama's delegation will take place.

Plymouth Patch will have more local reaction as friends continue searching for friends.

Here's a list of some of the news outlets covering the quake and tsunami from the ground:

AOLNews

CNN

New York Times

MSNBC

FOXNews