Helping in Japan through One Disaster Response Worker's Eyes

Aimee Herd : Mar 23, 2011
WithMyOwnEyes.org

"The leadership at the shelter were so grateful when we told them we had rice. They are feeding the 1,000 people in the shelter and 200 locals who are without food. Not only was it going to be a physical benefit to the survivors, but it was explained that it would be a comfort too."

While most of us cannot just pick up and head for Japan to help in the response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami there, I'm thankful we can come to their aid by praying for them, and sending what we can to help.

It gives us a better picture of just how to pray when we can get a glimpse of how it must feel to be there, through photos and reports of those who are in the midst of the immense destruction.

"With My Own Eyes" is a blog from Operation Blessing giving eyewitness accounts of aid work being done. Currently the blog is centered on OB's humanitarian aid work in Japan.

David Darg calls Japan's situation the "toughest disaster response I have worked on," noting that the sheer scale of the destruction, coupled with the lack of fuel and supplies, the bitter cold and of course the ever-present threat of nuclear meltdown and radiation have brought about his description.

"As we saw in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami, so often with these deadly waves it is the fishing communities that suffer the most," said Darg in his blog. At a school on high ground in the city, a volunteer named Ryuju Sasaki was caring for 250 people now living in classrooms after having their homes destroyed by the tsunami. Ryuju told me how he was at the port when the quake hit and rushed to collect his grandmother to get to higher ground. He said that many people fled to higher ground but realized they had left important items behind and returned to collect them only to be caught by the wall of water and debris.

"The stunned residents were slowly returning to scan their property. Some were sifting through the wreckage of their homes searching for valuables or anything they could salvage. Sadly, there didn't seem to be much left that wasn't covered in mud. The smell of death was present near piles of wreckage; so many dead are still yet to be counted. City workers had started to clean up some of the debris to gain road access. I noticed a few spots where they had lined up antiques and valuables next to the wreckage of homes in case the owners ever came back."

Darg added, "I have worked for Operation Blessing since 2005 and have responded to many disasters every year since then. In all my experience working in places devastated by natural disaster, I have never seen destruction like I saw in Rikuzentakata today. Thousands of homes had been disintegrated into millions of fragments of wood. The few buildings still standing were concrete structures that were engulfed in debris."

The aid worker posted photos that were equally as stunning as his words, as he described huge walls of debris that had been piled up to clear some sort of passage through it.

He and other OB workers were able to buy many bags of rice to bring to shelters, and Darg noted how glad the shelter administrators were to receive it.

"The leadership at the shelter were so grateful when we told them we had rice. They are feeding the 1,000 people in the shelter and 200 locals who are without food. Not only was it going to be a physical benefit to the survivors, but it was explained that it would be a comfort too. Up till now the center had only been able to provide bread in very limited amounts and this was difficult especially for the elderly who have been used to eating rice three times a day for their whole lives and who were very hungry. We had succeeded in getting their most needed supply to the shelter and they were extremely appreciative."

Read David Darg's full blog and view the photos at the source link provided.