5 years later, Japan still struggles to recover from tsunami disaster
Kozo Hirano can never forget that day five years ago (last) Friday.
Hirano and other town officials were discussing how to respond to a shattering earthquake that had just struck Japan’s northeastern coast when cold, black water suddenly crashed into the town hall. Only 10 of 100 people in the building reached the safety of the roof. The others died in a 30-foot-high tsunami that struck 30 minutes after being triggered by the quake.
In all, the raging waters killed nearly 20,000 people, wiped out entire towns and city centers, caused one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters and forever changed this part of the ｃountry. “We had too much faith in the levees,” said Hirano, now Otsuchi’s mayor.
Ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the 2011 disaster took place across Japan on Friday, as the long recovery efforts continue. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko appeared at a national service in Tokyo, and a minute of silence was observed nationwide at 2:46 p.m., the exact moment that the magnitude-9.0 earthquake — one of the most powerful ever recorded — struck about 40 miles offshore.
The government promised a massive response to the catastrophic damage. Nearly 400,000 buildings as far as 2 miles inland were damaged or destroyed. The nuclear power plant in Fukushima, about 150 miles northeast of Tokyo, suffered a partial meltdown. And 470,000 people were forced to find temporary homes, about half from the region surrounding the crippled nuclear plant.
Much has been accomplished since then. About 53 million tons of debris was hauled off to massive landfills and incinerators. New roads and rebuilt bridges dot the coastal area. Permanent housing has been found for nearly half of the evacuees, and residents have been allowed to return to some of the areas surrounding the Fukushima plant.
Yet, in many respects, the recovery is just beginning. According to the Japan Reconstruction Agency, 58,948 people still live in temporary homes — mostly prefabricated structures intended to last just two years. Many residents won’t move to permanent housing until at least 2018.
Of nearly 600 levees and seawalls that the government plans to build, repair or replace along the rugged coastline, only 70 have been completed, and construction has yet to begin on many others.
Some of the delays appear to stem from a shortage of construction workers and materials diverted to the massive repair of the Fukushima nuclear plant and projects for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Recovery plans in this small fishing village hemmed in by steep mountains provide a glimpse of the massive scale of the reconstruction efforts.
Otsuchi, Japan, March 11, 2011 as the tsunami struck.
Otsuchi took more than a year just to develop a recovery plan, because nearly all of its government administrators were killed and records were destroyed in the tsunami. Altogether, 813 residents died and 421 remain missing. That’s roughly 10% of the town’s pre-disaster population, one of the highest fatality rates.
Recovery plans include raising the level of the town center by 8 feet in a spot where only the shell of the two-story concrete town hall remains standing. That will match the height of an adjacent highway and other higher ground. A new seawall nearly 50 feet high will be built, as well.
It took more than two years just to haul away the debris and rebuild roads and other basic infrastructure here. About 60% of the town’s pre-tsunami population remains in temporary housing. Few will be able to relocate until the landfill project is complete and new homes can be built there.
Even then, no one really knows if the town will be spared from the next tsunami in this earthquake-prone area of the world.
“It’s never going to be completely safe, but this will buy time to get to higher ground, and the water won’t reach as far inland,” said Hiroyasu Haga, 66, a school monitor and chairman of a residents’ committee at a temporary housing complex just outside Otsuchi. Haga’s home was destroyed in the tsunami, but he, his wife and many neighbors evacuated to higher land before the wall of water struck.
Hirano said strengthening evacuation procedures is a big part of the recovery plan. Just as important, he said, is the emotional recovery for Otsuchi’s surviving residents.
“This town was built over hundreds and hundreds of years, but in … just 10 or 15 minutes it was completely destroyed,” Hirano said. “I saw people lose their lives just in front me. How do you recover from that? You have to rely on your family and your friends and your neighbors. That’s the only way.”
Article Source:https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/5-years-later-japan-still-struggles-to-recover-from-tsunami-disaster/
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VOCABULARY WORDS
1.Struggle/verb: make forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint or constriction.
2.Recover/verb: return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength.
3.Disaster/noun: a sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe, that causes great damage or loss of life.
4.Respond/verb: say something in reply.
5.Shattering/adjective: very shocking or upsetting.
6.Quake/verb: shake or tremble.
7.Magnitude/noun: the great size or extent of something.
8.Catastrophic/adjective: involving or causing sudden great damage or suffering.
9.Landfill/noun: a place to dispose of refuse and other waste material by burying it and covering it over with soil, especially as a method of filling in or extending usable land.
10.Incinerator/noun: an apparatus for burning waste material, especially industrial waste, at high temperatures until it is reduced to ash.
11.Prefabricate/verb: manufacture sections of (especially a building or piece of furniture) to enable quick or easy assembly on site.
12.Glimpse/noun: a momentary or partial view.
13.Adjacent/adjective: next to or adjoining something else.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Describe the devastation brought about by the 9.0 earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011.
2. What does Kozo Hirano blame for the huge loss of life in his town that day?
3. How did Japan commemorate that tragic day five years later?
4. What type of recovery has been accomplished in the past five years?
5. What work still needs to be done?
6. What is believed to be the reason for some of the delays in reconstruction?
7. Why are recovery efforts taking so long in Otsuchi?
