everything just began to shake. just kept asking where is she? have you seen her? i wouldn't know what i'd do without her. >> it looked like the world was ending. >> growing up in indiana, tsunamis and earthquakes are things you only see in hollywood films. >> he was sure his world had had ended. love of his life was missing. strangers in a strange land. they'd fallen in love, then the quake hit and all he knew was that her town was gone. >> come hell or high water i was going into that town.

>> and that's where he headed, right into that hell. willing to risk his life to try to save hers. >> fire on the water. >> but could he get there in time? >> i never loved someone the way i loved georgia. i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with "swept away." >> who can say what lurks throughout, past the horizon, waiting imporousinally, uttererly at random. and simple coincidence. a young man from middle america made a single decision. >> could you imagine back there in indiana you were about to make your life flip on its head in this way? >> no. no, never. >> how could he know that on the other side of the world a young woman made exactly the same decision. or that they'd meet practically on the eve of one of the biggest

natural disasters in recent memory. or how could he know that in the middle of disaster he'd lose her. >> i wouldn't know what i'd do without her. >> so coincidence, love, disaster. there is no fairness about these things. they just are. zack brown it turned 23 in 2010. i just picked up a degree in history from a college in indiana. no idea what to do next and then he saw an offer for a job in japan. a two-year stint teaching english to elementary school students. why japan of all places? >> i think it was just offered to me and i jumped on it. >> the town they sent him to in

japan was a long, long way from his home town of nashville. nashville, indiana. on sundays he skyped with his parents, john and terry. john is a musician and tarry a school guidance counselor. >> it was rough at first. the language thing was the big thing. >> you were a stranger in a strange land? >> yes. >> was it a lonely feeling? >> yeah. it was. but it was made better by the fact there were other foreign teachers in town. >> along with the teachers there was one other person, a volunteer who helped the foreign teachers adjust. a local english speaking businessman, kenji. a pretty accomplished guitarist learned zach was too. >> i was amazed by his song. his ordinary songs and he played

guitar very well. >> kenji pulled out an old gibson and said consider this yours. >> i would play music for them. i think that helped break down that barrier a bit. >> reporter: but just three weeks in, overwhelmed by homesickness he called his parents. he had had enough. >> as embarrassing as it is, i was actually crying and i said i want to come home. >> and we said no. you made a commitment. you're a man. you gave your word. >> how hard was it to say that? >> it was really hard. >> i may have hung up the phone a bit angry at him because it wasn't the answer i wanted to get but in retrospect, i'm really glad. >> and then one night when the teachers got together, there was someone new, another teacher just returning from sunny vacation. >> there was this beautiful tan

georgia coming back from croatia. >> 23-year-old georgia robinson from new zealand. she'd been teaching and living in a nearby town on the coast. in october, they all went to a karaoke bar. >> found out she was a huge fan of kiss and that sparked my interest. >> did it seem to be the same the other way around? >> no. because i didn't hear anything from her after that night. >> no idea that back in new zealand georgia's cousin, chelsea, started hearing about a guy named zach. >> she said he was really out going and really nice person who was interested in all the same sort of things as had her. the same music and same movies. >> and then a few weeks later, she called him. here they are practicing with the other teachers for december dance performance.

>> and then from then on we ended up spending progressively more and more time together. >> it was a happier young man who went home to indiana for christmas. zach introduced his parents to georgia sort of. >> i met her on skype and bless her heart she had the flu and had her bath robe on and was not feeling well and what a way to meet us. >> what did you think about this relationship with a girl so far away? >> we weren't putting that much stock in it. >> we were grateful he had had someone to spend time with. >> i was talking to my mom. and she's like so you really care for georgia, don't you? and i was like yeah and my mom got choked up and was like what happens if you move to new zeala zealand? and i had to assure my mother and say that's never going to happen, mom. >> reporter: zach seemed eager to get back to japan and then friday, march 11th, 2011, the

day before his father's birthday. >> i had spent a lot of the day writing my dad a nice big birthday email. i had hit send and was talking to georgia on g mail chat, i'll see you after this rehearsal. and. >> boom. >> boom. >> everything just began to shake. i was in an office chair with wheels. so immediately as it started, the chair began to slide. and things began falling off the shelves. >> zach had never been in an earthquake but his co workers knew this one was big. worried the building might collapse, they ran down stairs and out to the parking lot. but soon they were told it was okay, it's over. but the disaster was just beginning. there was a monster over the horizon called fate. and it was coming very fast. almost as soon as zach got back

to his desk, warning sirens went off and even zach knew what that meant and if the tsunami was heading to his town, two miles inland, what was it going to do on the coast in noda, where georgia was? what had happened to georgia? had anyone in her town survived the tsunami? >> it was unrecognizable. the buildings were destroyed. >> zach knew he had to find her and a world away zach's parents still hadn't found him. >> this can't be happening. are you sure it's where zach is? ♪ guys, thanks for making our new french toast so authentic,

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frooiiday morning, march 20. they had barely had a sip of their morning tea when the news jolted them awake. an epic earthquake had hit northern japan. 9.0 near the top end of the richter scale and then a huge tsunami crashing up the coast. it was like watching a disaster movie. this one horribly real and john and tarry's son, zack was now right in the middle of it. >> unreal. this can't be happening. are you sure it's where zack is? are you sure it's in the same region? everything was pointing to yeah, it's exactly where zach is. a and. >> so then we just prayed. >> enormous waves were hitting kujy, the towns where zach and

georgia were teaching. the frantic calls began to no avail. >> and what happened? >> it would say all circets are busy and that you'd get a busy signal. >> and then the minutes went by and then an hour and two hours. what did that feel like? >> hell. >> yeah. >> as a parent you never think my child's been killed. you never think that. you just wait, you just wait and pray for the best. >> and remember zach had wanted to come home months earlier but tarry and john had encouraged him to live up to his commitment. how much did you beat yourself up about that? >> i did. >> seemed right then. but now. >> it was just the helplessness of we're way over here and there's not a thing we can do. >> georgia's family in new zealand, including cousin chelsea were just as scared and helpless.

>> one of my friends got a text that there had been a massive tsunami in japan. george was over there. >> they turned on the tv and saw images from noda, the little coastal town where georgia was based. >> it was unrecognizable from images she had sent to us. the buildings were destroyed. there was debris everywhere. >> and georgia, though they tried and tried was unreachable. >> we really thought she had gone. lost hope. >> the world is watching japan and our coverage -- >> back in indiana that night, john turned on his computer and read that last email from zach. >> he sent it literally two minutes before the earthquake hit. birthday greeting. >> that said what? >> happy birthday. love you. >> it said much more than that

though. >> dearest rock and poppy, happy birthday. woo hoo, the big 50. the more time we spend apart, the more i realize what an amazing father and friend you have been to me over the years and always given me a perfect example of how a man and husband should treat his wife. i thought is this the last thing i hear from my son? >> and it's that? >> uh-huh. >> good morning. disaster in japan. >> saturday morning. more than 24 hours since they'ver had any communication with their son. >> 8:30 still had hadn't heard anything and woke up to even more horrible images and thinking about the death toles and all that. it was just compounding and compounding. >> and then about the moment all seemed lost another email

arrived, not from zach, it was from kenji, that volunteer mentor in japan. just a few words and they meant everything. >> breathe and sigh he survived. >> it was relief. >> zach was alive. all they needed to know for now but georgia still no word. well, his parents worried about him at home, zach was riding out the chaos in kujy. >> i wasn't really sure what was going on at first. >> after the shaking stopped, zach and his co workers moved up to the top floor of the city hall where the view of the whole city and the coastline. so if something's going to happen, this is where you'd see it. and then he saw it. something about the rivers that split the city and normally flow

out to the sea. >> river was beginning to flow in the opposite direction. the water began to change color. it went from blue to very murky. >> even four stories up, zach could hear it roaring river. >> it went from having a small debris like trees and other rubbish around the harbor and stuff coming into boats, to much largerer and more substantial two things he. >> cars and things -- >> yeah. that it must have picked up along the coast. >>, that is getting scary then, right? >> yeah. >> of course zach hadn't seen the footage everybody outside the country had seen. towns wiped off the map. thousands missing. he didn't know how bad it was. did your mind turn at all when you were up here to what's going on down there where georgia is? >> i hoped she would be doing the same thing i was. that she would be in a safe location. >> a safe location? was there such a thing where

georgia was? as water around him began to reseed and zach and his co workers came down stairs, he realized everyone was incredibly quiet. >> and people's expressions had changed so drastically to looks of genuine fear. that's when i thought i myself was scared. >> now he understood. if the wave got as far as his town furtherer inland, it had to have hit georgia's town right on the coast. what happened to all those people there, to georgia? and suddenly he knew he had to find this girl, had to. >> i wanted to see her and comfort her as well. >> no idea what would be waiting for you at that end? >> no, not the slightest. no. >> there's a moment in some lives that defines everything that comes after. a test, a trial.

this was zach's test to pass or fail. coming up -- >> i never loved someone the way i loved georgia. >> but sometimes love doesn't conquer all. >> it was complete scene of destruction.

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zach brandon didn't fully comprehend how bad it was. the tremendous earthquake and the deadly wall of water was snuffing out more than 18,000 lives, 10s of thousands of homes. whole towns were being swept away. but zach didn't know that yet. >> i just wanted to find georgia, my best friend and make sure she was all right. >> zach kept telling himself she was all right. the small town on the coast where georgia lived was protected by massive concrete sea walls and barriers. so your first thought wasn't oh, god, she's in trouble, it was more thank god there there's a wall? >> yes. it's there. there's no possible way it could have gotten over that. >> how did you find out that you were wrong? >> well, i decided i just left work.

>> back in indiana, zach's parents, relieved their son was alive got another email. zach was going to look for georgia. >> now a whole new set of concerns like i wasn't even exactly sure where she was. so once we figured that out and looked it up on it map. it wasn't far away but -- >> it was even closer to the coast. >> closer to the coast. >> wondering what he might find when he was over there by himself and what would he do if he didn't find her ? it was all those things. >> zach hopped in his car and began the eight-mile drive from kuji to noda. >> as i come down the hill, i start noticing people are walking down the side of the road. no cars but they're just walking. whole families walking and i'm just saying to myself that's

odd, that's strange. as i got closer, i have could see what looked like to be house on its side just in the middle of the road. i was really confused. because where were the tsunami walls? >> police had had set up a barricade and beyond it -- what did you see over there? >> it was complete destruction. you know. there had had been, for lot of the houses they're heated with kerosene. so kerosene tanks have been knocked over throughout the tsunami and because of the downed power lines, it actually sparked fires. fires on the hill, fire on the waterer. >> debris everywhere. >> just a complete scene of destruction really. >> zach almost in shock walked toward the barricade blocking the road. >> there was a police officer and he said to me, dangerous.

no and just kind of began trying to escort me back towards where i had had parked my car. >> so zach got in his car and drove back to kuji, trying to tell himself it would be okay, that georgia was fine. but the scene behind the barricade was chaos, disaster was obvious there were many casualties. it was impossible to know how many. but zach understood as he was earn itted away that one person's anxiety could not be allowed to trump public safety and yet at that very moment he understood with absolute clarity, he had to find out what happened to the girl behind the barricade. he had to. if she was alive or dead or injured. had had to because she was the love of his life. he sent message after message by text. >> in vein, knowing that they weren't going through but just hoping. little messages of

encouragement. i love you, i hope everything's all right. i've tried. just know i'm coming. >> what were you thinking? >> i wouldn't know what i'd do without her. >> guess that's the first time you really had to confront it in a serious way, right? >> yeah. i had had -- i had hnever loved someone the way i loved georgia. and so i guess i hoped she was going to be fine. and i was going to --

>> rprobably didn't sleep much then? >> no. >> the after shocks went on all night, so did tsunami warnings. >> so you're thinking is there going to be another tsunami coming through? i didn't really sleep. >> at 5:30 a.m., he left a note on his apartment door just in case georgia made it there. >> and i said georgia, i'm coming to look for you. if for some reason you make it into kuji. stay here. if it i haven't found you by sun down, i'm coming right back here. so know i'm coming back. >> and then he got in his car again and headed toward the coast. >> and i just decided come hell or high waterer i was getting into that town. >> but how? he'd certainly be facing hell

and high water but perhaps the biggest problem was the japanese army blocking the road. >> coming up. was time running out for georgia? had zach lost the love of his life? >> that feeling that she's not all right, it began growing as each minute went by.

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♪ as the sun rose over the ruin coastal towns of northern japan, zach approached the barricade outside georgia's town, noda. >> i parked a little further out this time and started walking in and they still had the police officers and the defense force with their road block but i noticed what looked like to be a group of locales with shovels and other gear. i'm going in to start clearing paths to the town and i thought that's my way in. >> those civilian volunteers seemed to have official permission to go in and knew where they were going.

>> so i just pulled my hood up and hopped in line with them and no one was looking around. >> he snuck past the police line, followed the group oppath away from the main road. he knew where he'd go first, if he could. so your first destination was her apartment? >> hoping i'd find her there sitting on the floor reading a book. >> reporter: deacceptscended ban to a horrific scene. noda was almost unrecognizable. >> there were houses toppled ovboats. just anything you could imagine. metal electric poles bent as if someone had come through and -- >> if shead a'd gone there befo the tsunami had hit, she'd be all right. >> everything was still left exactly the way we had hleft it

from the previous morning when we both went to work. >> zach could see down into the center of town. that's where georgia's office was, where she was when the earthquake hit and what he saw chilled him to the bone. >> what i couldn't see of the central part of the village that was so destroyed. in my mind i could not see how -- >> nobody survived in that city building. >> well, yeah. >> shaking that from his mind, he thought she may have gone to help out at one of the three schools she taught but when he got to the kindergarten, his heart sank. >> the kinder garten was completely gone. all that was left was a bit of the fence and some foundation. >> a kindekindgarten that was occupied? >> i hoped not.

>> now zach went to another school and found a group of teachers huddled in their office. unable to speak japanese, he passed around georgia's business cards with her photo. >> and i kept asking. georgia sinsai, where is she? have you seen her? >> they had not. but they did give zach some hope. >> they said -- go. junior high. so i take that as oh, she's at the junior high. >> so zach sprinted there, made his way to the teachers' room. >> and i asked them have you seen georgia? and they said they had hadn't. and i kind of lost it at that point. >> zach stagered outside, out of options. his despair now total. what was happening in your mind?

>> just feeling so lost. that feeling i've been trying to suppress. that feeling of she's not all right. it began growing inci size immensely as each minute went by. >> one of the teachers came out to comfort him with a cup of tea. >> hugging me and patting me on the back because i'm crying. yeah. >> then, out of nowhere, a van pulled up. two men hopped out. zach recognized one as a colleague of georgia's. they didn't look happy. zach tried to ask them. gnl gj, where is she? and they didn't say -- because they spoke no english and i spoke no japanese, pretty much let's go, pointing to the van and pushing me into the van.

>> they were taking him to city hall. >> did you have any idea what they were driving you to see? >> no. >> did you know that they had been taking bodies to the city hall? >> no. >> didn't know. >> city hall had become the temporary morgue. was that where he'd find georgia? coming up the news everybody had had been waiting for. >> he was very brave for what he did. very brave. but you do tat for - pop quiz:

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♪ two men had pushed zach into the back of a van which was now making its way through canyons of urban rubble, apparently toward the city hall. had zach known the place had been turned into a temporary morgue, he would have understood the looks on their faces. the van stopped. the men got out. >> he said don't get out. motioning for me to stay in the van and that was it. >> he steeled himself for whatever was coming up. what he did not expect was what he saw. >> around the corner walked out georgia. >> and i saw this baseball cap

over by a car and there he was. the last person in the world i expected to see trujing across the mud in his gun boots. there was zach. >> how was that? >> it was a pretty awesome moment. after the absolute insanity of the last 24 hours, it was surreal and amazing to see him there. >> hair all frantic. like she had had had no sleep like the rest of us. >> big hug. of course. >> she cried and i cried and just one of the best hugs ever, you know. knowing that she was safe. >> nice to know that somebody will go through the barricades, do whatever is needed to get to you. >> yeah. i just couldn't understand how zach had arrived with his

baseball cap in the middle of all this. it was insane. >> well, that's the way to a girl's heart. >> yeah. >> and georgia's story, well, if zach had ben ring side, georgia was center stage. and although she'd been through earthquakes before in new zealand, this was much, much different. >> that's the first time i found it hard to walk or stand in an earthquake. >> still, everyone around her seemed okay. she thought it was all just kind of exciting. even when the tsunami siren went off. >> i was like, oh, cool. this is really exciting. >> but others knew better and georgia soon learned this was very, very bad. >> they said you need to go upstairs. so i followed everyone. we went upstairs.

looked out the window and noda was gone. >> this is what georgia saw captured on her cell phone camera. much of the town of noda floating by the window. >> this exact spot, yep. >> it's just quite awesome. like half the town is up there and there's a roof here. >> there's a roof. there's actually a house wedged in under the entrance. it's been almost broken in half. >> and there's another house drifted across -- >> this house is not usually there. that's in the middle of the car park. >> just phenomenal. wow. she felt safe up here, somehow detached from the horror she was witnessing and then it hit her. >> it was this moment where it was absolutely silent and you could hear a dog barking off in the distance and occasionally there'd be a shout but other than that, it was so surreal, so

silent. >> wow. >> yeah. i won't forget that moment. >> water and debris piled up almost to the second floor. no one could leave. what was that like? >> that was the worst night of my life. >> a sleepness night huddled in her boss's office. missing zach but thinking he was okay furtherer inland. and then alshock and another tsunami siren. but they found each other and looked at what was left of the town. 38 people lost their lives in noda. a tiny percentage of the more than 18,000er who died up and down the coast but half of noda was simply gone. >> it was like someone had driv an bulldozer through and it was

all gone. how a wave can do that, i don't know. >> lifting complete houses up off their foundations so all was left was the shell. >> the front stairs leading up to nothing. >> and then they went to the safest place they could think of, their mentor kenji's office where the other teachers were. >> he found all the food he could find in his house, which inh included lots of beer and sake on hand. >> and music. zach and kenji got out the guitars and try to shut out the world. >> try to give ourselves some sense that everything was all right. >> and then cell phones chirped back to life. >> so everyone frantically had their phones out, sending emails to our families to be able to tell them we're okay.

>> back in indiana, zach's parents finally got the news they'd been praying for. >> it took me hours and hours but i found here and she's alive. and so the first thing i did was call brenda, georgia's mom and she was in bed. she wasn't asleep. she was trying to sleep. i said zach found her. she's alive. she just screamed and started crying. >> mom came in and told me that zach had found her and that she was safe and she was alive and that was the most amazing feeling i've ever experienced. he was very brave for what he did. very brave. but you do that for people that you love. >> the danger wasn't over of course. we all know what came next. so you find out that he's okay, she's okay.

now what? now what? >> fukushima. >> coming up, a different kind of aftershock. >> he said have you checked your email yet? and i said no. he said why don't you look at your email together and i said oh, zach, what now? this is gus. gus is a handful. we don't know what this thing is, but someday, gus will because this is the thing that gus will build that will change the world. and this is the thing that could change gus' world. gus doesn't know what this thing is, but we know what this thing is. this is the thing we'll help gus get rid of. and without this thing, gus can grow up to build this thing, whatever that thing is, because that's what we do. we do health things, and we do those things for northern california, birthplace of pioneers. you might if you have kids. to want it. and we do those things for northern california, all right, let's sell it on letgo. we'll take it. it's time to snap, post, chat and sell.

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notes

♪ the fukushima nuclear disaster. >> we are covering a full blown nuclear scare. >> it filled the airways. potential meltdown. nuclear arm gedden. the president was calling for americans to get out. >> yesterday we called for an evacuation of american citizens within 50 miles of the plant. >> we were seeing on the news it's melting down. it's just a matter of time. they can't stop it. >> it could infect that entire region of the earth. >> you nench think you'd ever experience a tsunami or earthquake and now you're experiencing a meltdown of a nuclear plant. >> we wanted him to come home. here we were the ones saying you have to stay. you made a commitment. >> now it's time for you to come home. >> but there was no travel, of

course anywhere. >> then zach got a call from a u.s. air force officer. >> he said we'll take you to the air force base and fly you to a safe location. >> so what did you say? >> i said -- i actually lied and said georgia was my fiance and said my fiance is a new zealand citizen -- >> can i bring her along? >> and he said i'm sorry we can only offer this to u.s. citizens at this stage and i can't leave her behind. >> zach and georgia were 200 miles north of fukushima and as the days past they began to feel the dangerer from the radiation was subsiding. so they stayed, even hemmlped wh the clean up. and then about a month later, funny how these things go. zach and georgia got another shock, another one of those life changing developments. zach told his parents about it

during one of their regular sunday phone calls. >> he said have you checked your email yet? and i said no. and he said why don't you look at your email together. and i said oh, zach, what now? >> after all the worry and dread they'd experienced over their son's time in japan, his parents weren't quite prepared for the bit of news. >> so we open the email and there's an ultrasound picture. >> a baby was on the way. >> we were literally speechless. one of the few times in my life i've been speechless. >> so we nicknamed it baby bean because it looked like a little bean. >> it just -- it felt right in a way. we were obviously -- are obviously in love and the timing wasn't amazing but it had happened. so let's just go with it.

>> still, it was one last step. zach hadn't been quite ready to take it before but when he came home to see his family. >> my mom and my sisters went with me and we went engagement ring shopping. >> did he intend to do that? would he have done that without that little pushing? >> i know i said would you marry her if she wasn't expecting a baby and he said yes and i said then she needs to know that. she needs you to ask her to marry you and not just it being expected to do the right thing. so, yeah, maybe i did push him. >> when had zach went back to japan, he was ready. or so he thought. georgia met him at the train station. >> as we're walking to the car, i -- i don't know.

i said you just have to stop. >> and i was like what are you doing? it's freezing. let's get in the car. let's go. and he said just wait. and all of a sudden he turned around and he's shaking but he's holding a ring box. >> and i got down on my knee and i just said i love you and i want to spend the rest of my life with you. i don't care if it's in japan or new zealand or if we're in sibeeria, i want to spend the rest of my life with you. will you marry me? >> and i said yes, of course. i had to put him out of his misery. he looked like he was going to collapse. >> and so i was engaged and we didn't know what we were going to do but we knew woou we were having a baby and getting married. >> you got married twice? >> we did, yeah. >> two weddings. the first in indiana. the second one in new zealand and there was a special guest at

that one. two month old sebastian. >> that one. yeah, getting some good distance. >> after promising his mother it was never going to happen, sure enough zach and his family now live in new zealand. he works for the government. georgia at a recruitment agency. we brought them back to japan for the first time since it happened. >> my name is georgia. >> this teacher and her students knew about georgia and zach. many looked upon their story as one positive thing that came out of that horrible tragedy. do you ever -- and this is a totally unfair question. do you ever sit together at night and say to yourselves, boy, if it hadn't been for that day, would we be here? would we have sebastian?

would we be in this life together? >> all the time. >> if someone had said you would be living in wellington. >> living in new zealand. >> with a 2-year-old son. i would have thought they were crazy. could never have imagined this. >> helped along by an earthquake, tsunami and god knows what else. >> yeah. yeah. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. crash. new insight into that san jose bound plane crash. two factors the cessna pilot say may have cause it had. we investigate the mysterious death of a student in marin county. new documents that may tarnish the reputation of a local school.

i am asking all citizens to embrace this renewal of the american spirit. >> right now at 11:00 a change of pace for the president and many people say he scored big, more subdue and had more inclusive as he addressed congress for the first time. and a look now at the capital this evening. plenty of reaction and impact from washington, d.c. here to the bay area. the news at 11:00 starts right now. good evening, thanks for being with us. i'm raj mathai.