Japanese Town Reels From Chaos Left by Tsunami - NYTimes.com

Japanese Town Reels From Chaos Left by Tsunami - NYTimes.com

Just 15 minutes had passed since a devastating earthquake rocked Nakaminato and a broad stretch of Japan’s northeastern coast.

Mrs. Koguchi rushed to her car, escaping shortly before the swirling, debris-laden water crumpled one of the walls of her small Japanese ryokan, or inn, and left a trail of destruction throughout the town. On Saturday, you could smell the effects as much as see it: the air stank of dead fish and sticky brown mud deposited by the three feet of water that had flowed freely through the roads closest to the ocean.

She spent the night in a community center, in freezing temperatures, but went home as soon as she could Saturday. She had not eaten in 24 hours.

“People used to come and praise my inn as beautiful,” she said as she tried to clear the silt and fish that blanketed the floor of her inn. “Now look at it. It’s disheartening.”

A day after the most powerful quake to strike Japan in recorded history hit off the country’s northeast coast, people here remained on edge. They had spent the night without electricity, running water or working telephones, and aftershocks rocked the area all night Friday and through the day on Saturday.

The scenes of destruction were especially frightening because they are far from the worst-hit areas. Nakaminato is on the southern edge of the worst devastation from the 8.9-magnitude quake and the tsunami it spawned, which swept away whole villages farther north. Nakaminato sits about 155 miles south of Sendai, the northern city that bore much of the brunt of the tsunami.

Before the shaking and the waves hit, Nakaminato’s buildings had a worn-out look; the town had been left behind by the country’s industrial buildup and by the young people who headed for thriving cities. The mostly aging population made its living mainly from fishing; the heart of the community was a fishing co-op on the waterfront.

On Saturday, the waterfront was battered, and Nakaminato’s residents were surrounded by the signs of a livelihood in tatters. Giant freezers in the co-op were stacked on top of each other, packed against a far wall where the waves had pushed them. Forty-foot fishing boats, tilting in all directions, were piled on top of a long concrete wharf.

And the fish, mostly silver and blue bonito, were everywhere, mouths agape.
Yukinao Nemoto, a 34-year-old forklift driver, was at the wharf on Saturday, trying to absorb the chaos around him. He was loading a boat on Friday afternoon when he noticed the bottom of the forklift suddenly scraping the ground. The reality that the earth was moving took a moment to set in: the forklift hit the ground because the ground beneath it had sunk eight inches.

Mr. Nemoto scanned the water and saw a white line of waves speeding to shore. He jumped off his forklift and ran up a nearby hill, barely beating the waves.
“I just dropped everything and ran,” he said.

It was unclear if the water that buffeted the town had spilled over the seawall built to keep it out, or had rushed through an opening that the town’s fishing boats passed through each day.

The destruction in Nakaminato was not limited to the water’s edge.
Yukio Kobayashi was on his onion farm when he felt the first tremors radiating from the quake’s center in the Pacific.

“I couldn’t stand up; I had to crawl out of my field,” he said, dropping to the ground and showing how he had fled. “And then I saw the tsunami. I could see it pass by.”

Mr. Kobayashi, 71, said he felt lucky because the waves hit at low tide. “If it was high tide, the waves would have got me.”

He spent the night with about 100 others at an elementary school gymnasium in town, in the dark and the cold, listening to a lone radio for information. He had taken a power generator and a single kerosene space heater to the center, the only source of heat for the people huddled in the gym. No one slept, as aftershocks regularly rattled the building.

On Saturday, his fields were coated with mud. “This is the first time in my more than 70 years that something like this has happened,” he said.

In another part of Nakaminato, Hiromi and Kimiko Ogawa were in their sushi restaurant, scooping up mud and other debris that filled the building. When the quake hit, they sped off in their car.

A day later, their restaurant reeked of seawater and sludge. The giant freezer outside the restaurant used to store food was missing. The second of their cars was stacked on top of a pile of wooden debris.

It will be a long time, they said, before the restaurant will reopen.
Chiyako Ito said she was in her house when the shaking began. The first tremor was so powerful that Ms. Ito, a 72-year-old rice farmer, was knocked off her feet. As the trembling subsided, she ran outside, only to be knocked off her feet again by an aftershock.

As she lay on the ground, she saw the barn collapse on her tractor and two cars, flattening them. But the worst was yet to come. The tsunami waters swept up the river near her farm, stopping just a few yards from her house.

“I was paralyzed in fear,” she said.

On Saturday, as she walked amid shattered glasses, cups and plates in her home, she said she felt helpless. “I have no electricity, no water, no cellphone, no telephone,” she said. “I have no idea what’s happening.”

Ms. Ito added: “I’m afraid it might happen again. I’m so afraid, my feet are tingling.”

The Times has a page, "Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: How to Help." Episcopal Relief and Development usually sends aid in these circumstances, but doesn't seem to have a page set up for it yet.

There are some photographs here, and some stunning videos here.

Pray for these people. And send help.