tohoku relief/interpreting trip

I was introduced by Darwin Halvorson to Brad Buxton and Dustin Bond (his son), who came from Salt Lake area to volunteer in Tohoku and gather the information necessary to inform other American volunteers on how to properly go about it. They needed an interpreter to come along and assist their information-gathering. I went Saturday, then again on Monday and Tuesday.

Brad is a successful businessman who has a strong desire to help people, and Dustin is a smart, tough, enjoyable guy. It was a pleasure to work with them and help again with volunteer efforts. They are generous, smart, practical people.

We went to the Kesunnuma Voluneer Center (VC) and went through the registration/orientation process. Processes sound like a pain, but at this point, I think anyone going to help is best off going through a VC. They supply tools, a variety of places to go and help according to each volunteer's ability, and parking and tent sites. They have English-speakers around and do not require Japanese language ability. In other words, go there and do some work, please.

This is the poster they had out showing the volunteer process. It reads (approximately--wish I knew a good translator):

1. Be sure to register at the volunteer registration desk

2. Receive the orientation and an introduction to the activity locations ([and info on] parking spaces)

3. Once your location is set, be sure to go to the materials management area to receive necessary equipment

4. Travel to location (by foot or vehicle)

[smiley face] Please be careful [egregiously Asian-looking, hatted smiley face]

5. After your volunteering is finished, make a report at the activity report desk [this only applied to team leaders]

GOOD WORK!

Before we went to the VC, we went to see Ishinomaki, where Raleigh, Sam, and I went last month. The next series of photos shows the clean-up progression of Abe-san's house:

A large shed had been washed up against the house to the left, the house to the right, and the car hidden behind the shed, which had of course also been washed in. The shed had large bags of ruined rice in it--a good reminder that food storage is probably best stored somewhere that won't get flooded/washed away/etc, if possible. Probably not possible in this case, of course.

Here you see Raleigh and Sam working on the debris, after we'd dismantled the shed that was previously in front of the car at right.

Another shot of where we were after dismantling the shed and other large stuff, but still with cars.

How Abe-san's house looked when I went back--Abe-san was unfortunately gone, so I didn't get to congratulate him on the amazing progress. He clearly worked his butt off to get it this nice.

Our assigned volunteer location in Kesunnuma was an abacus school. We cleaned the second floor, where this photo was taken. You can see that the water line would have reached my chest, even on the second floor. The building survived because it had a solid steel frame.

We also removed the entire counter/sink/cabinet kitchen set and many of the weaker floorboards on the first floor. Under the floorboards we found (and smelled) a lot of oil sludge. I assume a lot of the sludge resulted from the nearby refinery fire and other leakage caused by the tsunami.

Most of the following photos were taken in a low-lying area near the Port of Kesunnuma. The area was very quiet and we saw almost nobody around. Here is a post-earthquake, aerial view of the area where the photos were taken. If you zoom in you can clearly see many of the ships pictured.

An elementary school backpack.

A telephone pole with the lower part of its concrete exterior ripped away to reveal the steel reinforcement. Lots of these around.

An emergency radio/flashlight amid the debris.

A ship on top of a building.

Two ships smashed against one another and on top of a building. Pretty astounding to see in person.

Dustin under one of the ships.

Another ship--you can see on the left where the owner has taped a cardboard sign to denote who owns the ship. I have no idea if the ship could ever sail again, much less be transported the few hundred meters back to the ocean.

The railroad tracks near Shishiorikarakuwa Station. The bend in the tracks in the distance is quite jarring to me--not sure if there was a train right there when the quake hit or what.

The largest ship we could see around--it had to be (100? 50?) yards long. Look on the aerial view to see its distance from the sea.