Besuch von Ishinomaki, am 19.05.11 (Donnerstag)

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The blog of Haruka Komori and Natsumi Seo who work as voluntary helpers in Tohoku　after the earthquake.
We hope that many people will be interested in helping the Tohoku area through our reports about the catastrophe area.

About our second visit to Tohoku (5/18-5/24):
We discussed our impressions of the areas we visited, the situations found in the catastrophe area, and to tell about the current condition and how things are improving.


*** Visit to Ishinomaki ***

<Situation in Ishinomaki>

• There is less rubble than in April in some areas, however in others
there is still the same amount of pile up as there had been before. One can very clearly see the difference.
• Throughout the city, there are still traffic jams.
• Some traffic lights still don't work.

< Situation of the volunteer center>

The headquarters for the volunteer center is located in Ishinomaki Senshu University.
The volunteer center is relatively well appointed. There are more volunteers here than in most other cities, but nevertheless more are still needed.

Web page for the volunteer center in Ishinomaki
http://msv3151.c-bosai.jp/group.php?gid=10163

• The volunteer center now is better organized than it had been in April.
• There are many volunteers who live in tents there.
• A non-governmental organization called “Peace Boat” has some volunteers located there as well. The web page for “Peace Boat" can be found at http://www.pb-kyuen.net.
• The amount of tools available for various projects is sufficient and well organized, so it is easy for people to borrow what they need.
• There are many younger people who have given up their free time to volunteer and help as needed in the area. Some of them gave up their own work so that they could concentrate on their endeavor as voluntary helpers. 

* * * Volunteer support work at a house * * *
We were sent to a house where an old lady lived.
Altogether there were six volunteers there, consisting of two men and four women.

 <Situation>

 • The ground floor of the house was flooded. The floor and the foundation of the house were destroyed, therefore it was very dangerous and messy on the ground floor, so the old lady was living on the upper floor. However, the old lady had trouble walking and climbing steps.
• She actually had applied for only three volunteer helpers from the volunteer center, but her needs would have been unmanageable with only 3 volunteers.
• She had no family who lived in or around the area.
She also had only a little contact with neighbors. If there had been a problem with the availability of volunteers, or if the volunteers themselves need any assistance while helping her, it would have been even more difficult for her. 
• Her furniture and appliances were not usable because they had been covered by saltwater, but she would like to be able to use them again. Thus, we were unable to dispose of much for her.
• She wanted to provide for herself by taking care of her own cooking, but she can’t go to any supermarket at the moment because she doesn't know which supermarkets are open or not. Therefore, she doesn't eat enough because the supplies she is given are not adequate and diverse enough. 

* The administration cannot immediately help with this problem. Also nobody otherwise knows, when the old lady can get the next time help of voluntary helpers.


*** Visit to the district “Minamihama-Cho" ***
The district “Minamihama-Cho" lies near the sea. Therefore, the tsunami caused an excessive amount of damage to the district. There had also been a fire there after the earthquake.

 <Situation>

• Only a few people were there in the evening. Of the people we saw, several of them were photographers.
• There is not much to see there, other than the gigantic metal frameworks that is left from some of the buildings.
• Even now, 2 months after the disaster, the removal of rubble seems to be taking a long time.


*** Special note regarding Ishinomaki ***
Ishinomaki had been given a relief supplies, but this help had been discontinued at the end of May to those not living in shelters.
• Although Ishinomaki is a relatively big city for the area, and it seems that many volunteers had come, only three percent of the debris had been cleared by the time of our visit.


Translated by Yuko,SAKAJIRI