American missing for 4 days in Japan found
Twenty-four year old Taylor Anderson was teaching English at a school in Japan near the epicenter of Friday's earthquake when the place she called home - Ishinomaki - was virtually wiped off the map.
Taylor could have been at any one of eight different schools when the 33-foot high tsunami wave decimated the city.
Complete coverage: Disaster in Japan
Four days passed with no word from Taylor. She was among the estimated 8,000 people missing in the region.
But on "The Early Show" Tuesday, co-anchor Chris Wragge reported Taylor was finally been located -- just moments before the show aired.
Her parents, Andy and Jean Anderson, spoke from their home in Midlothian, Va., about their daughter being found.
Wragge noted, "The one thing I can say is this interview takes on a decidedly different tone now, and I'm relieved to say I can only imagine how elated you are. I know we're thrilled for you over here. What was it like to get that call?"
Andy said, "It was wonderful, because I'd just read an e-mail from the consulate ... that they had a team in Ishinomaki that had been through six evacuation centers and not found her yet. And then, within minutes after that, I got a call from (an) international relations office in Miyagi and he told me that Taylor had been found. So it goes from, 'Oh no, here's another day of waiting' to, 'She's found,' and just amazing up and down, down and up."
When Jean got the good news, she said, she couldn't believe it and she was "so relieved."
"It's been a hard four days, but we just knew we'd find her and we just kept on hoping," Jean said. "And she's coming home. We're very happy."
Wragge asked when they can speak to Taylor.
Andy said it's not clear right now, but said, "They were trying to get a government car to go down tomorrow. It's in the early evening there. They would try to get to her tomorrow. And I asked (them) to please take a satellite phone so that she could call back. But it's probably going to be 18 to 24 hours I would think before we hear from her."
Her parents said they knew all along that she was probably among 1,000 people gathered for shelter at a middle school.
"We just couldn't find out which middle school it was," Andy said. "No one could tell. There's a lot of evacuation centers and we just didn't know where she was."
During their search, they also learned of a cryptic message left at a hospital. Andy explained he had received an email that said an Australian Embassy official had seen Taylor's name at the Ishinomaki Red Cross hospital.
"But that's all that was on the message wall," he said. "It didn't say anything. The hospital did tell them that there were no deceased foreigners or foreigners in the hospital, so we felt relieved that maybe she had been there. But we just didn't know what had happened after that."
Wragge asked Jean about her daughter's future in Japan.
He said, "Your daughter is there on a three-year teaching exchange program and I know this is her final year. Is it safe to say that she'll be coming home?"
Jean replied, "Yes. Coming home - a little earlier than planned, but she's coming home."
She said the feeling of knowing her daughter is safe is "unexplainable."
"We're so filled with joy and can't wait to hold her and touch her and love her again," she said. "We're just - words can't explain how we feel right now. We're very grateful."
Andy added, "It's going to be great. I can't wait to hear from her and hear what she wants to do next. And tomorrow will be great when we get her on the phone and talk to her about her plans now."
Andy and Jean said they'll be making many calls today to thank those involved in their search.
"We've had a lot of support from family and friends, and we need to thank a lot of people, a lot of people praying for us and for Taylor," Andy said. "And a lot of her friends helping. So it's going to be a lot of people to talk to and thank. Her brother and sister and her boyfriend, James. So it's been great to have that support and now it all comes to an end, which is great."
