WESTBROOK – When Yurika Seko logged into her Facebook account on March 11 and saw messages from her sister in Tokyo assuring people she was all right, Seko knew something bad had happened.

Seko, 31, moved to America from her native Japan 20 years ago, and now works for Idexx in Westbrook as a software developer. Ever since the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan nearly two weeks ago, Seko has followed developments and checked up on her sister and other family members back home.

Idexx’s connection to Japan runs deep. Seko is one of dozens of the company’s employees who are either in America and worried about family overseas, or working at the company’s Tokyo offices, which are still up and running as normally as possible, according to company spokesman Tony Giampetruzzi.

None of Idexx’s 95 employees working in Tokyo were hurt, Giampetruzzi said, and the Tokyo offices were virtually untouched.

“We are currently operational as usual, except for the power outages,” he said.

The magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck March 11 in the middle of the afternoon in Japan, with an epicenter just off the Japanese coast. The quake caused a tsunami, which devastated coastal communities such as Sendai.

Most of Seko’s family lives in Inazawa, which is more than 400 miles away from the center of the devastation, but her sister, Mayuri, 33, was with her husband in Tokyo when the quake hit.

“She definitely felt it,” Seko said.

When she learned what had happened, Seko said her first reaction was shock.

“It was, ‘Is my family ok?’ That was the first thing I thought,” she said.

Mayuri assured family members that she was not hurt, but that hasn’t stopped Seko from worrying about her sister, especially once Mayuri learned she was pregnant days after the quake.

Seko said her sister told her the city is suffering from losses of electrical power, for three hours at a time twice a day, in order to conserve electricity. Food and other basic supplies are also scarce. Seko said her sister has posted pictures of grocery stores with bare shelves. Seko recalled one story of Mayuri asking her husband to go out to buy some flashlights.

“He came back with two big candles and said that’s all he could find,” Seko said.

Seko said she felt better after learning Mayuri had gone to stay with family in Inazawa, but Mayuri’s husband, a businessman, remained behind in Tokyo.

“Unfortunately, you can’t just get out,” Seko said.

This isn’t the first time a disaster drove Seko to fear for her sister. In 2003, Mayuri was in Indonesia when a tsunami struck that country. It was nearly a week after the incident that Seko said she learned her sister was miles away from the devastation then, and was not hurt.

“This feels a lot more personal,” she said of the current disaster.

Seko, who hasn’t visited Japan since 2006, said she had been planning to visit next year. Now, she said she may be going sooner than she expected, and not just to see her family. Seko said Japanese authorities have been telling aid groups that volunteers aren’t needed right now, but once the situation stabilizes, that may change.

For now, all Seko can do is watch from 6,000 miles away, and wait.

“It’s heartbreaking, sitting here and not being able to do anything,” she said.

Giampetruzzi said Idexx is standing by, too. The company has volunteered its services in past disasters, such as in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, and in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake there.