There were tears of joy, relief and overwhelming emotion at Pearson Airport on Monday as Canadians who had been caught in the Japanese disaster returned safely home.

Scores of Canadians, including 43 students from a Toronto high school, landed at Pearson Airport three days after a massive earthquake and tsunami destroyed parts of Japan.

Students and staff from Richmond Hill's Holy Trinity Private School were flying into Tokyo for what was supposed to be a 10-day trip through Japan when the quake struck on Friday.

After being diverted to a military base over the weekend, the Grade 9-12 students flew home on Monday, where family members anxiously waited to greet them.

"It has been a rollercoaster ride, it has been a long weekend of craziness," one mother told CTV Toronto shortly after the students arrived. "They are home, we are grateful and we pray for those people in Japan."

Among the Canadians caught in the quake were several GE Energy employees working at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, many of whom were preparing to return home after months overseas.

"It was unbelievable. The shaking, you can't describe it. A few buildings went down around us, we were lucky ours didn't," Joe Collins told CTV Toronto.

"For us to get to Tokyo it was like driving through war zones. There were cars on their sides, everything was black. The four hour drive took us 12 hours."

Wife Jennifer Collins was speechless as she met him at the airport on Monday, saying only that is was a great relief to see his face again.

Dan Ayotte, 58, was also working at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant when the earthquake hit. The man from Young's Point, Ont., near Peterborough, flew back to Toronto on Sunday, relieved to have escaped the disaster unharmed.

Ayotte said he and his officemates hid under desks and fallen shelves as the building, located just outside the gates of the plant, shook like a leaf.

"I thought the building was coming down; it was moaning and groaning. It started off like a shake and then it almost started going elliptical. It felt like the whole building was going to go," he told CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney.

Ayotte has been travelling to Japan on business for the past 15 years and this wasn't his first earthquake. But it was definitely the worst he has experienced.

"When this thing it and lasted that long, we knew there was going to be damage," he said.

With reports from CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness and Austin Delaney