A young family from B.C. is recovering in Japan this morning after being caught in the 6.9 magnitude earthquake early Tuesday morning.
Gary Baars and his wife, who are from Chilliwack, were in their hotel when the quake hit at about 6 a.m. local time.
The couple are in Tokyo to adopt a baby girl and they were in their hotel room, along with their two-year-old son, when the room started shaking.
READ MORE: Tsunami hits Japan after earthquake strikes off Fukushima
“We were in bed and all of a sudden I could hear my wife yelling ‘there’s an earthquake, we’re having an earthquake’ and so we bounded out of bed and the whole building was shaking,” said Baars. “We were high up, we were on the 25th floor.”
The powerful earthquake sent thousands of residents fleeing for higher ground. It did generate a small tsunami that hit the same Fukushima region devastated by a 2011 quake. However, there were no reports of any deaths or serious injuries.
Baars says the earthquake initially prompted them to leave their hotel room, but after discovering the elevators were not working, they decided to stay in their room.
Now they are waiting to finish their adoption paperwork and hope to return to B.C. with their new daughter soon.
— With files from Catherine Urquhart