Former Islander Hoops Star, Fiancee Safe After Tokyo Quake

Mercer Island residents Ashley Harris and Tyler Besecker are a little frazzled but safe in their Tokyo, Japan hotel room after experiencing yesterday's catastrophic 8.9 magnitude earthquake firsthand.

First reported by the Kirkland Reporter, Harris and Besecker were on a business trip in Tokyo related to the family's wholesale seafood company, Mercer Island-based Dana F. Besecker, Inc. The couple were in their 19th-floor hotel room at the Mitsui Garden Hotel in the city's Ginza district when the first rumblings of the earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. local time. 

"We are both okay," she wrote in a blog entry. The hotel experienced several aftershocks and issued warnings of a possible tsunami with waves 6-10 meters (20-33 feet) striking Tokyo. But despite the damage caused by the earthquake, the hotel still had power and access to email and internet — something Harris decided to put to good use.

"Surprisingly the thing that kept us updated in a world of media and announcements we cant understand was Twitter!" she wrote. "In case I can update more, my twitter name to follow is @cravehealth."

Reached by Twitter, Patch asked Harris when they thought they might be able to make their way home. Their flight to return to Seattle on Sunday was canceled, due to the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, but they're hoping to return by the middle of next week.

"We are going to still try for the Monday flight out of Narita (Tokyo) Airport despite the buses currently not running there," she said. "(It's) tricky."

Besecker — a former basketball star at graduate of  in 1999 — and Harris — a Woodinville native and a Registered Dietician — live in a home just off of East Mercer Way and are engaged to be married this July.