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3.11 survivors share what items they really needed during the aftermath of the disaster


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From SoraNews24  10 Mar 21

3.11 survivors share what items they really needed during the aftermath of the disaster

https://soranews24.com/2021/03/10/3-11-survivors-share-what-items-they-really-needed-during-the-aftermath-of-the-disaster/

 

The CM is only in Japanese but the article tells what they say.  

The young man who was a fourth grader and talking about his mother struck a cord within me. 

 

Grant

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A good stock of disaster preparation supplies comes in handy in all kinds of unexpected situations, for example a decent reserve of toilet paper (lesson learned from 2011) can be very useful during the early stages of a pandemic. Also disposable face masks, which were not a particular issue in 2011 but at some point I thought a few spare packs might be useful for whatever reason (though I was imagining more "protection from dust while picking through the rubble" at the time).

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Growing up in California earthquake territory you were just hammered to have minimum of a weeks worth of supplies and at least 3 days in your car (may not be able to get home if at work or if your house falls down on your home supplies). Makes total sense but few do it. With these sorts of disaster no warning really. Moving to the east coast most of the disasters became weather related and few days warning and it still shocks me when friends say we only have a day or two of supplies so have to go shop fast! 
 

In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami a few of us started a little charity, Omocha Express, to raise funds for the victims. We realized our little donation would be a small drop for all the main needs that were getting a lot of attention, so we looked for things that would be more between the cracks. When I was a kid our rental house partially burned down (heater blew up while we were luckily away form 2 days) and smoke, heat and water damage ruined most all our clothes and my toys, so I have a strong memory of loosing all my toys at once (who cares about socks when your hot wheels all have melted wheels...). So we focused on getting toys to kids. Then we moved to art supplies and toys for nursery schools as they turned out to have sort of fallen between the cracks in the recovery. Also a couple of playground toys were purchased for a park. The last funds were spent on a program to purchase small lights that were anime characters that kids would put on their backpacks to stand out if walking around areas that still did not have streetlights back.

 

thanks to many folks on the forum who donated and the Dutch artist group that donated the proceeds of an art auction, doubling our funds in one donation! We also had the wonderful help of folks at Santetsu railway, the newspaper in Iwate, and our club’s sister club in Iwate to help with the delivery of items to kids and the schools. It wasn’t much, only about $25k raised and all spent, but it was something that we hoped brightened the day of a few kids who may have lost all their toys. It’s wild that was 10 years ago.

 

jeff

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