Canon City mom thinking of son in Japan

Posted: Mar 11, 2011 9:48 PM by Matt Stafford
Updated: Mar 12, 2011 7:45 PM

For Debi Moore it's another day of work at Fandies Candy Company in Canon City, but she was up all of the night before. Her son, Ty, is doing missionary work in Japan, and he told her about their massive earthquake and tsunami. He sent her a text message around midnight, Thursday.

"It just said, huge earthquake, 8.8, we're okay," said Moore, Ty's mother. She felt helpless; watching images of disaster on the other side of the world.

"As a mom, it's hard to let your child go and then know that they're in an area that you can't do about to help them," Moore explains.

Ty also sent back -- along with a copy to News First 5 -- a video shot by his roommate Wade Yamaguchi. They were 230 miles from the epicenter of the quake, in a city called Kawasaki.

Debi hasn't been able to stop watching, but it's a lot easier knowing her son is safe.

"When I watched the part of the video where they were trying to figure out what to do, and I know it's that, I've-never-been-in-an-earthquake-before feel," Moore explains. "They said should we get under the beds, I was standing going, 'Get out of the building!'"

"I was so relieved when I found out they decided they should probably leave the house and go outside," said Moore.

Ty and the people he was with saw a small amount of the damage that was done, but as things slowly get back to normal in Japan, Moore feels that her son's current work might shift a little.

"I think this is a new mission for them," says Moore.

Moore will keep watching, from a computer screen a world away.