Over the weekend, Ann Curry arrived in Japan to cover the disaster from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. When she was in Japan, she got a tweet from Megan Walsh looking for her sister and former English teacher in Japan Canon Purdy. (see the tweet here)

@AnnCurry thanks for following me please visit schools to find canon http://bit.ly/hoKo95

Ann Curry responded back

@wednesdaywalsh the link won’t open for me here. If you could dm me details, I will do my best.

Although the link to 2011 Japan Earthquake people finder didn’t work for Ann Curry, she still got a photo from Walsh and head to the Japanese village of Minamisanriku, where the tsunami has caused 10,000 of its 17,000 residents to be missing. Amazingly, Ann Curry found Purdy along with two other American teachers at a refugee center. Within minutes, Purdy used Curry’s phone to call her frantic family in San Francisco. “I’m totally OK,” she told her sister. “It was a great relief,” Purdy told TODAY’s Matt Lauer. With no cell phone service after the tsunami and no hope of getting any “any time soon,” Purdy knew that there was no chance that she could reach her loved ones back in the United States to let them know that she had survived. “I had to tuck it away, and hope for the best,” she said. “And hope that they weren’t too worried, and try and do what I could here.”

After the reunion, Megan Walsh tweeted out

@AnnCurry I LOVE YOU THANK YOU FOR FINDING MY SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although this story has a happy ending, many people are still trying to locate friends and family. With both power and telecom interruptions, it’s still difficult for families to find one another. Continue to pray for the people in Japan.

Ann Curry helps American in Japan reunite with family