Thursday April 14 Aftermath of Destruction and Meeting a Miracle

After fumbling for a couple of hours to set up some partitions in the dojo gym, we drove to meet Beth and Chihiro. She guided us to the scenic overlook park above the city. There are no words for the view that met us. In the area within ten blocks of the ocean, whole blocks were completely leveled. The industrial district with all the manufacturing, shipping, rail yards, etc. looks like an atomic blast swept through. Tops of warehouses may look normal, but everything lower than 30 feet is just twisted skeletons of steel. Railcars, boats, buildings, giant tanks, and semi trucks (in Japan most heavy trucks are not semis, they’re actually 30 ft cab and bed on a single frame) are all tossed on their sides up against trees or walls or warehouses.

After looking down, we drove down and through the area. Some streets had been bulldozed clear and a giant crane was dropping fill in behind the eroded sea wall, and power poles and street lights were almost completely missing.

We visited a rest home. Amazingly, even though surrounding streets and houses had been washed away, and the rest home had been flooded, it was bright and clean on the inside and out. In one month they had cleaned and cleaned until there was hardly a trace of the mud. We were able to give them some clothes—some of the residents had lost all of theirs.

Nearby—what was once a neighborhood park. We put out the tarp, but there were only a few people around, even after we had spent 20 minutes putting out almost everything we had, including the rest of the vegetables which had been riding around in Dave’s van for 3 days. But then people started coming, and we eventually gave away everything except for a few boxes of clothes. Beth read stories to the kids, and I got to play with them for a while as well.

A family staying with relatives in that neighborhood came to the park whom Chad and Beth had met before. The father was at work on the day of the tsunami. The mother and two very small children were at home when their house was picked up and demolished. The mother grabbed a tire floating by, managed to get both kids up on the tire, and then floated for a day and a half in snowy weather before being rescued and brought to a shelter. For two days, no news of the father, then finally they were reunited. He had no idea they were alive either. From the way they helped us unload and set up, and the way the kids played, you would never have guessed what they’d been through. We had a prayer with them before leaving.

One last drop at a shelter in the downtown area. Kleenex, wet wipes, boots for the men, and some fresh fruit and vegetables we didn’t even know we still had.

Finally “back at the ranch,” Dave cooked an amazing spaghetti dinner, then had to leave right after eating for his long drive home.