Sendairect

Hi, Thanks for your voted and friend invite! I'm so glad i got to see your works...SM..

More shelter news 4/21/11
Friday, April 22, 2011 at 12:04pm

The Iwanuma shelter was really much more encouraging. The building itself was not a school gymnasium but a whole community center/ward office type building. This means LOTS more space for people to grab a private corner. It was also so much cleaner and more efficiently run I felt. There were many more helpers and everyone seemed to be a little more cheerful. I really think cleanliness and a feeling of tidy & clean is an important healing factor for people who have spent a week soaking wet and whose minds are filled with images of mud and dirty water : '(



It was also encouraging to know that numbers of evacuees had dwindled. Starting with around 500 after the tsunami,numbers had gone down to between 100 and 200. This is because after one month some people had gotten up the courage to return to what remained of their homes and to start some kind of repair work, staying meanwhile I assume with friends or relatives. These were folk whose homes had lost whole rooms or even whole floors but some rooms and roofs and foundations intact. Needless to say the remaining families lost their whole house : (



The main event of our day was the free flea market and the 2 movies we showed. Kids show in the morning and adult show in the pm. Both were enjoyed judging from the laughter and smiles. We didn't see inside the sleeping area but we did learn that people had enough space to sleep flat at least.



While there, a team of 3 Chinese from Kobe arrived. They had driven up from the south (no trains into Sendai still) and their car was loaded with toys and boxes of white chocolate cake. It was so very lovely to see that so many people from all over the world and country are so caring and thoughtful and active in their support. The cakes were Japanese choco "baum" cakes..........so yummy and especially nice for elder Japanese people to get something traditional like that : ) They were distributed one each as people went in to the movie.there were so many leftover I wanted to give two or 3 each but..well that is not how things are done. Anyway, the remainder cakes will be saved for tomorrows ration I am sure.

There was a massage center set up where volunteers gave 15 minute shoulder massage to seated refugees any time they wished...and a sports room for badminton and table tennis. There was a tent outside where a team were cooking hot soba..there was a free phone...there were corners and areas where some families sat together for a bit of privacy.



And best of all the toilets and bathrooms were immaculate.



Overall a good day but prayers and thoughts still needed for these and the 1000s of other evacuees who are living out of a bag and will be doing so for quite some time.

She told me food was distributed until it ran out like this " people in their 7os please come to the stage for their apple and onigiri, please make an orderly line and wait your turn". Then it would be "people in their 20s" etc, randomly. She said on the first day food had run out before they called her age group : ( I guess numbers far exceeded what was first expected and food was so short for all.



Since that first terrible week -when even the army you have to remember had trouble getting food - things have greatly improved regarding food, heat, water etc. The govt is providing wholesome hot meals to all shelter residents 3 times a day and mountains of boxes of snacks from Canada and other countries I saw are waiting to be distributed and being rationed out daily. It is controlled very tightly. I was not allowed take a pic of the warehouse supplies..



While this style may seem not quite right to us, it is how things are done. Rules are rules and people do not tend to break them. It does have a very good side... keeping order, safety and fairness perhaps, but it is frustrating for many volunteers who just want to help fast and plentifully and ...yes, randomly.



Many of these people are just numb with emotion. They look weary and sad and emotionless.Many have hacking coughs. The woman I quoted above said to me she cannot now distinguish between what is true and what is a dream after seeing her father washed out to sea. A man beside her then joined in, saying with equally numb expression that he watched two of his four kids washed away..most of these people have lost their whole house and everything in it. Jo-ho-san (as I called her) said that they had 5 minutes at most to gather a bag and in that bag she could only fit a small number of possessions. She says she cannot stop thinking about her photo albums washed out in the ocean, photos of their past which she now has no record of.



I was able to give Jo-ho- san some vitamins and batteries and granola bars for her and her family. Also some scented lotion and wetwipes. It is so frustrating not to be able to do more. I really want to go back to this shelter because it seemed to be still so in need compared to the next one we visited. I wanted so badly to give everyone a hotel room for the night just to get a decent night's sleep but it is beyond my means and would not be allowed anyway. Jo-ho- said she had slept sitting since the quake because allocated space in the communal sleeping area was limited, she said she hadn't slept lieing flat since before the quake.



The children at this center were so lively and it was so wonderful to see pets being given a shelter of their own and being played with and petted by people. Volunteers from Turkey had visited the previous week and cooked Turkish food, volunteers from Tokyo had been with circus performers and balloons, everyone is trying to help.

Inside a shelter :details. 4/20/11 c.rights reserved.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 1:23pm

The first shelter we visited was very small. School gymnasiums are used here as evacuation centers, typically for a few days or a week at most until people can get back to their homes and aftershock fears have subsided. They were never intended to be semi permanent homes like they have become now while government ponders the huge demand for relocation posed in the aftermath of the tsunami and also the Fukushima plant situation with thousands ordered to evacuate there too. Fukushima evacuees are getting priority because temporary evacuation gymnasiums are not even possible in the affected zone.



Apartments have been allocated for some Fukushima refugees already but they are nowhere near enough and they are done on a lottery system. Lucky numbers. Tsunami evacuees are still waiting to hear. One wonders about the large number of empty hoses on many streets and if there isn't a way that these could be bought and used..I feel.. after speaking to evacuees, that being together with other evacuees may not be the best plan for mental health. Everybody has a story more grim and more horrific than their neighbor's family and this cloud of tragic memory may be harder to disperse if all evacuees are placed together in "tsunami apartments".



So people are cramped and hygiene and conditions at the first shelter we visited were really bad, as can easily happen when too many people live in too small a space for too long a time. I asked several people I spoke to what they would want donations to fund for them and they invariably replied "a good nights sleep" or" to be healthy again" or "a home". While donations of food and blankets and books and snacks are now readily available and being distributed (if at times in a very restricted -one each- manner) and definitely appreciated!..stress has taken a toll on health. As one woman explained:



"The first week after the tsunami we were wet!! Soaking wet from the knees or waist down. There was no power here so NO heat and no water or electricity. We slept in freezing conditions, wet and hungry. Then when the SDF (ground defense army) got through in helicopters the onigiri and apples rations were small. Not enough for hungry cold people to revive. People began to catch colds and fevers and the small cramped space meant these were passed around fast. No cleaning materials or hot water meant bathrooms were filthy and no baths meant people were too. We are still trying to get back our health, some have caught flu...the govt are providing masks and insist we all wear them to stop the spreading of germs"

I'm Noriaki Yoshie, working for Hakueisya. Jin's theater project in Sendai has done successfully. I'm appreciative of your support and guidance. We expect your photos for more precise information. Thank you so much.

14 packages and they are now finished. Tomorrow we head out to the coast to visit the shelters.

I have delivered 9 packages so far. I took pics of them all, the people who received them and what was in their bags. I posted pics on Facebook so donors could see who got their care package. It isn't a completed task, there are still more packages to deliver and then there will be leftover funds...hoping those can be used for people in the coastal shelter we are visiting Monday.

Gas came back on today. In our street. This is so great because we can now cook again and wash dishes. 5 weeks worth of dirty dishes stacked up to do. When he was fixing our gas outside a neighbor came over and wanted to know when theirs would be on..of course everyone is impatient it has been a long time since we had hot water. The gas pipes were so badly damaged in the quake and the main gas supplies were cut off with factory explosions, fires etc...in the end I think they were talking about pumping gas in from Niigata.

Whatever they did it is working. We had a good meal tonight and the kitchen is clean at last.

My ex husband is a Japanese national guard/self defense force reserve/retired member. He was called up last week to look for bodies along the coast. He just got back and today, when I went to give him his care package, he told me about his experience. It sounds pretty harrowing to say the least.

The soldiers worked from 5am until dark for their week in turn, searching among debris and rubble for bodies and personal belongings. He says the dust in the air was so thick from debris everyone had to wear masks and goggles and some members got sick. They saw cars piled up one on top of each other ..sideways and back to front..no houses left ...just pieces of wood and occasionally recognizable pieces of furniture washed up on top of the piles of wreckage and rubble.

They had to look in furniture if they saw any; one soldier in his regiment found 2 million yen in a tansu/chest and luckily it was in a bag with some form of ID so this will be returned to relatives surviving. He told me that all money and personal possessions found were being taken to centers and would be given to relatives instead of body remains which are proving so hard to find. Hundreds of these bodies, given tide direction, have washed up farther south along the coast of Fukushima which is of course a no entry (radioactive) zone so people cannot search and may not be allowed near there for months or years yet.

Many elderly Japanese keep large sums of money in their rooms rather than the bank. It is said there has been a lot of money washed up on the shores.At the moment only the police and SDF are allowed near the shore. A little farther inland where there are refugees in shelters, charities can reach but the coastal devastation is being kept very private.

He says that he personally found carcasses of pets; one dog, 2 cats and a bird (in a cage). They had to wade into rice fields that were full of water up to their necks and feel around with sticks for heavy weights below.

Their team found no human bodies. The next regiment along found only two. Searching will continue through May.

He said he expected to see more recognizable items -but everything is charred and brown and most items have turned to dust and were shattered by smashing into each other in the power of the waves. He said many lost their lives this way before drowning.

He's gone to bed for a few days with a bad cold and fever.

Today was an amazing day. Things are happening. Delivered a few more store to door happy bags to neighbors and friends here and then got myself somehow attached to a charity.



Donations of clothes were being collected at a hospice where I have helped and was attending a meeting. They -the social workers- were discussing going out to the danger zones next week and delivering the clothes to people who have lost their homes. I told them about the $450 I had left from the Sendairect fund and they suggested and offered I came along too and see where that could be used best.



So on Monday I will get in a small bus with them and we will head out to one of the shelters in Wakabayashiku- one of the coastal areas badly hit by the tsunami. The people we will meet there (and hand out clothes to) are homeless. They lost everything in the tsunami. This particular shelter is housing around 300 people I believe. It is one of many.



They are bringing a movie, I suggested Miyazaki's "Arietti" but I'm not sure what they will choose to show and we will distribute clothes and talk to people.



The reason this is so amazing to me is because all the coastal roads are blocked by police. Regular citizens are not allowed near and certainly not able to cross police lines. Because this is an official non profit charity/organization we will be given passes to cross those lines and we will be seeing devestation with our own eyes that inland people have only seen on TV. It is a great chance I think to see where it would be best to use the remainder of our Sendairect fund.

Looking forward to Monday : )

From Tokyo we were able to get internet. Friends on Facebook began asking how they could help people in Sendai. They really badly wanted to donate and help but charities were having difficulty getting in with the red tape, and the fear of radiation. It was frustrating.

One friend helped set up an account, non profit, just a simple "let's help" plan with small donations that added up to enough for some care packages to be distributed to people who had suffered and were still having problems getting enough food.

I had a trip booked prior to the quake for a week nr New York and a plan evolved of how we could get help to people fast. I would shop for things that were unavailable here or in short supply and bring them back to neighbors and for locals and if enough, farther afield..coastal areas where families had even less. It wasn't a huge 'miracle wand' kind of plan ..just a simple "let's try and help in small ways as fast as we can" sort of plan.

And that is what we did. And now I am back in Sendai and today I delivered the first 2 care packages and tomorrow I will go out and about and deliver several more. Each package contains canned fish, batteries, vitamins, protein bars, dried milk, instant soups/meals,dried fruits, nuts, cookies and so on. I have no car so it will take some days. Every package will be photographed and each person who donated will receive a number so they can track their package and see exactly who it went to.

Hi Sendairect, welcome to Bloggers community. I sympathize with Japan. Hope things will work out as soon as possible so that people can return to their lives, somehow :)

The week that followed was one of confusion and chaos and a feeling of total helplessness. There was very little information -just word of mouth- since there was no electricity or power for several days following the quake; there was no TV, no phone, no radio without batteries, no stores open to buy them or anything, no newspapers, and worst of all no water.

We borrowed candles. For 4 days we wore coats and hats and gloves in bed as temperatures were below freezing. We kept warm in the day by walking and/or wrapping ourselves in blankets. It snowed. We collected snow in buckets to wash with as it melted..which took a long time. We ate was left in the freezer and was starting to defrost..

On the fourth night after the quake we heard news that electricity was back on in one part of Sendai. We waited for our area to get power back and watched from the balcony as different parts of town lit up as power came back in those areas. At midnight on the 15th our house suddenly gurgled and bleeped back to life. The fish tank filters bubbled, the lights came on..the TV worked...still no internet.. and phone connection was random.

The days that followed were taken up with lining up for food. Some days this was a 2 or 3 hour wait in snow or rain, bitterly cold, to get our allocated 10 items. Only dry foods and dry goods available. Some days the store had sold out before you made it to the front of the line. Other days were better, you lucked upon a small fruit and vegetable shop that still had fresh food...every day we lined up for water 2 liters each..and hauled it back up the hill. No gasolene, people walking everywhere like we had stepped back in time.

The situation in Fukushima started to become clear. People were panicking. Many foreigners left and Narita airport was flooded, all planes out booked for days and long waiting lists for cancellations.

I wondered what to do..how long this would continue..how long we could continue to remain strong in spite of knowing we were the lucky ones and thousands had lost their lives and homes in the tsunami, we were starting to feel overwhelmed. Neighbors were suffering, becoming depressed and weary, the kids school had closed down indefinitely, my work and business everywhere in the area was postponed...still is.

We decided to go to Tokyo.

It was hard to get a bus out. We had to wait for hours and then book ahead. No trains in and out of Sendai as all the lines were buckled and wrecked in the quake. They say it will take months and months to repair them.

Earthquakes have different characteristics. They may be the same magnitude yet totally different in twist direction, duration and acceleration of speed. In the Sendai 9 on March 11 2011 I had just gone into the bathroom when it began. They say smaller rooms are safest and I remember thinking 'well this is as good as any place to be' and in the first few seconds as the quake began to build to its peak I decided to stay put, opening the small window a fraction so the glass was less likely to shatter and opening the door so it wouldn't jam. These were things I had been taught by my kids to do, from their drills at Japanese school. I stood in the door arch and held the door beams above me for some balance.

The quake began in a side to side rolling way as most quakes do. It was after about 5 to 10 seconds it began to change to the violent up and down kind of violent quake that everyone lives in fear of. I realized at that point as the two motions of side to side and up and down were joined by a terrible twisting, that this was a very, very major quake.

I was scared -my heart was racing wildly- but at the same time you know there is absolutely nothing you can do but pray or wait. It felt as if a giant had reached down and was trying to uproot our house like an unwanted weed, twisting and pulling the house until you could hear parts of the walls and roof tiles, fall off, and crashes and bangs as furniture in other rooms fell over.

I was thinking all the time about my son X in his room above. I didn't call out because the sound of the quake was huge and deafening and I trusted that he would know what to do on his own and screaming at this point was going to add to panic for both of us.

As the quake reached its terrifying climax, the door I stood in actually lifted from its sockets and i felt like I was defying gravity for several seconds. Water from the toilet bowl spilled out all over the floor and on my feet.

Itlasted a long time. It shuddered to an end with ghastly hiccups of magnitude 7 and 8 following at 2 to 10 minute intervals for hours and hours. I stumbled out and called to X..he said he was okay.

The living room looked like a burglar had visited,cupboard doors open and contents spilled, a mirror smashed, papers and lighter items all over the floor but I didn't want to be inside.

Ran outside. The road was still swaying. I looked up at our house, it was still swaying. Everything was in motion, telegraph wires, trees, no birds sang, then quite suddenly out of nowhere it began to snow heavily. Within one minute everywhere was covered in a blanket of white snow. And then, just as suddenly it stopped...

People were out on the road in a panic, everyone looked so scared, the world was still rocking. A woman ran out with cuts on her face and said her windows were smashed and she was cut..I noticed lots of motorcycles and bicycles on their side fallen, walls crumbled and huge monster cracks appeared in our road. Some houses had lost parts of their roofs and windows everywhere had smashed with glass on the pavement. My legs were shaking and it was so cold I didn't walk far at this point.

Neighbors gathered in small groups with umbrellas, someone gave me a mask, there was dust and debris..it was below zero, so cold.

It occurred to me that we were on high land, the hilly central part of Sendai..what could this have been like for people near the water, on the coast just 40 minutes away. Nobody knew
about the tsunami yet.

I wanted to know the magnitude but there was no information. Power had of course gone out and fires lit up the hill around us. It was like a scene from a movie but there was no script, no music, no story yet.