Former PBA cager Eric Reyes on Japan quake: 'I thought that was it for me'

Eric Reyes recalls his ordeal when a magnitude-9.0 quake hit Japan. Joe Galvez

Former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player Eric Reyes is no stranger to calamities. He still recalls how Baguio City was rocked by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on July 16, 1990, and the way swollen waters in Metro Manila swallowed entire communities on September 26, 2009 due to typhoon Ondoy. But nothing could have ever prepared Reyes for the 9.0 magnitude quake that rocked northeastern Japan last week. Reyes was vacationing in Japan with his wife and their 10-year-old daughter when the strongest earthquake to hit the country in a century happened. They were inside the Tokyo Disneyland's DisneySea theme park when they felt the ground beneath them shake. He knew, for a fact, that earthquakes are common in Japan since the country has one of the most active fault lines. But when the tremors grew stronger and took longer than expected, he knew something was terribly wrong. Reyes' instincts told him to rush out from one of the attractions of the popular theme park, but trained employees prevented him from doing so. They were just instructed to dock and wait for the shaking to subside. "I though that was it for me. It was scary. I was asking the Lord to help us," Reyes told GMA News on Tuesday. The earthquake was said to have been the strongest in Japan in over 140 years. Aside from triggering 30-foot high tsunami, the quake also damaged a major nuclear power plant in Fukushima, where explosions inside the reactor buildings caused the release of toxic levels of radiation into the air. Sensing it would be unwise to go out - knowing the next aftershock could strike any second - some employees and trapped visitors, including Reyes, chose to group together and just take shelter in one of the cafeterias inside the theme park. The people were forced to stay inside the park since the railway system - the only way to get in and out of the place - was shut down. With no decent meal readily available at that time, Reyes and the other accidental "refugees" ended up munching on cookies distributed to them by the resort staff. "Bilib ako sa kanila. They were giving it for free. And you know this was just not your ordinary cookies. These were expensive ones, because it still had the Mickey Mouse logo on them," he said. As the hours passed by, temperature outside the shelter continued to drop (between 10 to 12 degrees Celsius in Reyes' estimate) and the frigid breeze was seeping into their shelter. Coming once more to the rescue were resort employees, who handed out box cartons and big plastic bags to be used as sleeping mats and blankets. The employees' humble gesture might have warmed Reyes' heart, but it could only do so much to make sleeping at the cafeteria more comfortable. Though wearing a turtleneck sweater and thermal undershirt, the temperature was still too much for Reyes. It also didn't help that they were inside a confined space. "But just like what we say in basketball, you just have to suck it up," said Reyes, who played for RFM-Swift, Mobiline and Alaska in his pro career of over 10 years. The 42-year-old Reyes is currently one of the hosts of GMA News Online's sports webshow, For The Win. Very early in the morning, a friend billeted at a nearby hotel finally arrived to fetch them and let them stay in their suite. Reyes was even greeted by a crowd at the hotel lobby. "As it turns out, that's what they really do. Hotels really open up their lobbies and let people in," Reyes said. After switching on the television in the hotel room, only then did Reyes see the actual extent of the damage caused by the quake and the tsunami. And the images he saw on the news? The swirling waters off Sendai, rushing sea water as it closed in on coastal communities, and a boat being swept towards the rice fields. "My wife cried. After all that happened, everything just set in and she told me she got scared," Reyes said. He said the experience was very humbling for him and his family. "It doesn't matter if you have money or not. If that happens, it means anytime puwede ka na makuha. You will just have to survive." Reyes said if there's something Filipinos should learn from the Japanese, it would be the latter's discipline. "We, Filipinos, are known to be hospitable. But their discipline is just different." "Nakakabilib ang disiplina... They were trying to comfort everybody else... This always struck me. Even if they see you with food, they would still offer theirs," he said. He praised the Japanese for their ability to remain calm, orderly, and organized in the face of tragedy. He also said the Philippines could learn a lot on how to lay down disaster response efforts during such calamities. - Mark D. Merueñas / JVP, KY, GMA News