American Morning

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March 15th, 2011
08:07 AM ET

American survives quake, walks 20 hours to find girlfriend

Zack Branham is a 24 year-old American who was in Japan teaching English when the quake struck.

Branham made it through the quake but had no idea if his girlfriend, who was at a coastal town four miles away, also survived. Determined to locate her, Branham traveled by foot for 20 hours through impassable roads until he finally found his girlfriend.

Branham talks to Kiran Chetry and Christine Romans about his experience.
Filed under: Japan Earthquake • U.S.
soundoff (14 Responses)
  1. Kelsy

    that pretty darn sweet

    March 29, 2011 at 12:09 am |
  2. Kristin

    Love is an AMAZING thing. Glad you are both ok!

    March 24, 2011 at 8:47 pm |
  3. trueamerican2012

    @Hiker
    "While I applaud his dedication, is there a typo in this article? It took him 20 hours to walk 4 miles??? An average middle schooler can run a mile under 10 minutes. You can hike a mile in 45 minutes. But let's say it takes double that to walk a mile under the post-disaster conditions: 1.5 hours. That would make a four mile trek to see his girlfriend six hours. How did he spend five hours to walk each mile? It would make more sense if he walked 14 miles, or even 24 miles. But just 4 miles?"

    Did it ever occur to you that the roads might have been covered in mud, debris, broken houses, dead bodies, entire fishing vessels, trees, etc.?

    I'd love to see you walk 4 miles in those conditions.

    March 24, 2011 at 5:08 pm |
  4. Hiker

    While I applaud his dedication, is there a typo in this article? It took him 20 hours to walk 4 miles??? An average middle schooler can run a mile under 10 minutes. You can hike a mile in 45 minutes. But let's say it takes double that to walk a mile under the post-disaster conditions: 1.5 hours. That would make a four mile trek to see his girlfriend six hours. How did he spend five hours to walk each mile? It would make more sense if he walked 14 miles, or even 24 miles. But just 4 miles?

    March 23, 2011 at 7:39 pm |
  5. Kathleen

    Very cool! You are courgeous, loving, and protective man! I am so glad you found her!

    March 18, 2011 at 10:30 pm |
  6. jan

    my son and his wife were JETS in Fukui for 3 years...you story is a bright spot in such a bad situation....we visited Japan and fell in love with the whole country and it's people.....take cre if your self

    March 18, 2011 at 9:46 pm |
  7. J.A. Marquez

    This is my wife's cousin. The whole family is so happy he and his girlfriend are doing fine. What an amazing man Zack is!

    March 18, 2011 at 5:32 pm |
  8. fromcanada

    Well as they say "love is strong", and she sure has an amazing guy in her life that would walk 20 hours to find her.

    March 18, 2011 at 1:16 am |
  9. pol

    That is so sweet. Glad uboth survived. Thank God.

    March 17, 2011 at 7:40 pm |
  10. Frankly Speaking..

    Zack, great work man..wonder if you would have taken the same pain if it were your mother

    March 17, 2011 at 2:41 pm |
  11. Connie Searcy

    Saw this on the TV. Was so excited as he is an alum like me of Franklin College, a small college in Franklin, IN south of Indianapolis.

    March 16, 2011 at 7:37 pm |
  12. Mu-Xi 587

    Frater Zach
    Glad you have made it out ok. That is probably the most awesome thing you could do ever. Love, Charity, Esteem.

    Regards From Mu-Xi,

    YITB
    Brian

    March 15, 2011 at 4:49 pm |
  13. Hector

    Dude! You're making us regular guys look bad. I can hear it now,"why don't YOU ever walk 20 hours to check on me?"

    March 15, 2011 at 4:31 pm |
  14. Ned

    Zach–glad you are well. Good News!!!

    March 15, 2011 at 11:33 am |
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