2011-03-29 Kamaishi Local Conditions 291

7 years ago on an early Tohoku aid delivery and survey mission, organized by Beau Retallick . The immediate self-organization by some of the tsunami-hit communities we visited was truly inspiring. The first memory that comes to mind was one small community in Otsuchi, where among a sea of shredded houses, crushed cars and appliances, we encountered, a giant bonfire surrounded by hundreds of collected chairs. In the cold of March, the community elders were kept warm in blankets near the center of the concentric seating around the bonfire. Occasionally other members came to check on the elders, and take a short rest themselves. Even before being told, we could tell that this community had organized themselves for the youth to run through the forests and collect kindling, stronger individuals had crowbars and hammers out for extracting any reusable plywood, 2x4s, laundry poles, wire, cooking pots and metal sheeting from the ripped apart homes littering the coast. When we moved up to the elementary school turned evacuation shelter, we found those extracted parts were being used for making an ingenious cooking rig. The kindling and firewood collected by the youth was placed into cleaned out street gutters next to the shelter. Above that, several long laundry poles had been fixed about a meter above the gutters. Clothes hangers were used to set dozens of kettles and pots just above the burgeoning fire for a cooking rig. Through other stops on the trip, we encountered many frustrated town leaders who informed us that among the initial supplies helicoptered in by the Self Defence Forces was a ton of uncooked rice, without the equipment to prepare it. They said that with electricity, water and gas lines cut off to these communities, cooking with even intact stoves or rice cookers wasn’t an option. After the initial helicopter deliveries of bottled water, the SDF began moving around coastal communities with a water truck. Similar to the issue with the rice, many of these communities were frustrated by a lack of options for collecting this water. In response to this, Beau’s team was delivering as many 50L water tanks as could fit in two Bongo Trucks. Since gasoline and diesel were restricted to 20L/fill for several weeks following the earthquake, and every gas station had a several hour lineup, these diesel Bongo trucks were being run off of kerosene to enable a wider and further delivery/survey mission. Due to the kerosene, we had to keep the windows open while driving, and slept outside in the cold Tohoku March evenings. Despite the cold, it was a heart-warming trip to encounter such hard-working and innovative communities like the one in Otsuchi.