20110506 Tsunami victims in limbo in ravaged Japanese city

 
FEATURE: Tsunami victims in limbo in ravaged Japanese city  
By Takehiko Kambayashi, dpa 

   Ofunato, Japan (dpa) – Kumiko Oikawa spends most of her day on
painstaking work, cleaning up her two-storey house hit by tsunami
waves up to six metres high.

   “Water completely submerged the first floor of our house,” Oikawa
recalled.

   The March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake struck north-eastern Japan,
generating a powerful tsunami, which devastated this port city,
washing away cars, ships and buildings.

   The region is well known for its deeply indented coastline, one of
the nation‘s top scenic sites. But the main part of this city has
been reduced to rubble.

   The disaster killed more than 14,800 people and left nearly 10,200
unaccounted for, according to recent police figures.

   After the tsunami waves receded, Oikawa said she came back to
witness extraordinary scenes that she felt were detached from
reality.

   “The second floor of a taxi company blocked our gate and a ship
was driven up on our vegetable gardens,” Oikawa said, adding that
three of her family‘s four cars were also swept away.

   Oikawa said she had become used to taking shelter in a nearby
community centre and did not mind cleaning up the house all day.

   “All of our family survived,” she said softly, overlooking a
flattened part of the city.

   Soon after the quake, a stream in front of her house started
flowing in reverse and quickly became a swollen river, she said. That
alarming sign prompted her and her family to rush to higher ground.

   “I had never seen that before, so we had to run,” she said.

   Many of the people in that area did not leave their houses and
were engulfed by a tidal wave, locals said.

   “People around here used to say tsunamis did not reach this area
at the time of the Chile earthquake,” said Oikawa, whose house is
located some 800 metres from the port.

   When the 1960 magnitude-9.5 earthquake struck Chile, the resultant
tsunami hit this Japanese city, killing 53 people.

   This time, 305 people died and 155 were missing in Ofunato, one of
the worst-affected areas.

   Resident Kenichi Maekawa also saw the swollen river and decided to
drive up a hill.

   He and his wife survived but their house was destroyed by the
tsunami. The two have been staying at an evacuation centre.

   Though people in north-eastern Japan are well known for their
patience, more refugees had started to gripe about their misery,
locals said.

   Some 2,300 people have been taking shelter in gymnasiums and
community centres in the city, whose population is nearly 40,000.

   “Food provided there almost always looks the same,” Maekawa said,
smiling wryly. “We have rice balls or sandwiches.”

   Maekawa, who has been staying in a community centre with about 200
people, said refugees go to a makeshift bathhouse two or three times
a week.

   But Maekawa said he takes a bath at his relatives‘ place because
at the bathhouse many people are soaking in the same bathtub and
there is no shower.

   Refugees have been waiting for temporary housing to be built.

   The Iwate prefectural government is to complete the construction
of 15,000 housing units by July, local daily Iwate Nippo reported.

   “It will probably take years to go back to my house,” Meakawa
said.

   Kazue Hosoya, a mother of four, said her house was not damaged but
she is concerned about employment opportunities for her and her
children.

   Hosoya, who now sells pan-fried noodles at a stall outside a local
supermarket in Ofunato, landed a job in January at a newly-opened
oyster restaurant in the city after working at a local hospital for
years.

   But that restaurant‘s oyster farms were destroyed by the tsunami.

   “I hear it would take at least four years to put everything back
the way it was,” Hosoya said.

   Having lost the farms, the company started selling pan-fried
noodles for the time being.

   “I don‘t know how long this will last,” she said.

   Hosoya and her family live in the neighbouring city of
Rikuzentakata, where the disaster left more than 930 people dead and
some 800 missing out of a population of 24,000.

   Local officials also said 45 per cent of the city‘s houses were
demolished by the tsunami as its main part is located on the
seafront.

   “My son is graduating from high school. But there are very few
places to work in the city because many companies, shops and public
buildings were washed away,” she said. 
dpa tk se cd 
Author: Takehiko Kambayashi
060646 GMT Mai 11