Quote:
Originally Posted by striperman36
Why aren't the Marines in Japan like they were with Haiti?
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You mean like this....
KESENNUMA, Japan—The plight of Japanese evacuees from tsunami-devastated regions north of the Fukushima Daiichi plant grew more intense as supplies of water, food and fuel began to run low, even as attention in Japan focused on the critical issues of extinguishing nuclear fires.
After nightfall on Wednesday,
a joint team of U.S. Marines Corps and Japanese Self-Defense Forces delivered essential items such as water, food and blankets to relief centers in two hard-hit areas north of the city of Sendai.
Some of the aid materials had been trucked in from as far away as Niigata on the Sea of Japan coast and the Japanese military unit included troops from the western Japanese city of Kyushu, who drove up to the area on Saturday.
A U.S. Navy crewman delivering bottled water in northern Japan Wednesday; a team of U.S. marines was also heading to the disaster area.
Progress was slowed by intense snowfall and partial road blockages from debris washed inland from the tsunami or rocks dislodged by Friday's massive quake. Highways were closed to all but military vehicles and private trucks ferrying in supplies. On other roads, few cars were in evidence, a reflection of low gas supplies.
In the city of Kesennuma, which suffered some of the worst damage, local city officials staffed a warehouse that was nearly barren before the joint U.S.-Japan military force unloaded four truckloads of supplies. From there, the aid was to be distributed among 60 shelters in the area.
But even with the extra supplies, the Kesennuma official overseeing the central distribution center said the level of supplies was still insufficient as some 14,000 meals were needed each day. "These supplies are a lifeline for thousands, but we have nowhere near enough," said Kunio Hatakeyama, 52 years old, a city tax-department chief who is in charge of about a dozen colleagues at the facility. "We need more help from outside."
Mr. Hatakeyama added that one of the most critical items in short supply was infant formula.
En route to the warehouse in Kesennuma, the wreckage from the tsunami was evident more than a mile from the ocean. A Toyota dealership's cars were scattered all over the lot and the showroom windows had been shattered. Retailers' parking lots in shopping strips were filled with silt as much as three feet deep. Many traditional wooden homes were crushed and partially washed away. An inset riverbed was littered with debris such as washing machines and wooden boards.
At another makeshift facility—a covered gateball center about the size and height of a basketball court—about 80 evacuees milled around a single kerosene stove or wrapped themselves in multiple layers of blankets, the only defense against the freezing weather outside.
"It's very, very cold and we're running low on kerosene," said Takeshi Kumagai, 75, a lifelong resident of Rikuzentakata, a coastal community in southern Iwate prefecture that suffered the brunt of the tsunami.
Mr. Kumagai said he and 10 friends were playing a leisurely game of gateball, similar to croquet, on Friday afternoon when the earthquake shook them more violently than they had ever been shaken. They ran outside to huddle in the parking lot until the tremors subsided, then about half of the group fled home to pick up loved ones or possessions despite fears of a tsunami. "They never came back," Mr. Kumagai said.
These evacuees, along with about 1,200 others at a nearby junior high school, spent a fifth day Wednesday without running water, electricity or natural gas.
Many evacuees feared it might be weeks or even months before they could arrange to leave the center and live with relatives. With major roads closed and gas stations sold out for miles in every direction, the evacuees said they were stranded.
Some said the tsunami struck nearly two miles inland and that most homes not directly on the coast were only covered by earthquake—not tsunami—insurance. However, it was the human toll that seemed to weigh heaviest. "First we have to find and bury our dead," said Mr. Kumagai.
The Marines and Japanese military stacked hundreds of boxes of food and beverages on one side of the facility, while evacuees' few possessions and blankets were spread out on blue tarpaulins sitting on top of the worn green artificial turf. While those in the shelter welcomed the supplies—many younger evacuees pitched to lend a hand with offloading boxes from trucks—they worried how long they would last, especially since another several dozen evacuees were expected to arrive Thursday.
Despite their many travails, the evacuees were grateful to have survived and tried to keep up each other upbeat. "I survived World War II, so we'll survive this, too," said Kaoru Ninuma, 86, who wore a baseball cap stitched with the words "Japan Gateball Union" across the bow. "The war was tougher because unlike now no one was delivering food to us back then."