I'm writing this at 7:14am on Wednesday. We just arrived at the command center about 15 minutes ago after a 5:30am start. Traffic has been so bad that even though most things won't begin here til 9 we have to continue leaving early if we don't want to waste gas in traffic for hours.
A lot of the traffic is caused by the fact that most area trains are not running, so people are all driving if they're going to work at all. Most gas stations are rationing 20 litres per vehicle and the lines to get gas stretch for many blocks. Even this morning we saw cars lined up as far as 2 blocks at a gas station that wasn't yet open for the day.
The atmosphere here in Tokyo really feels like one of waiting. With aftershocks still happening (only last night there were a couple more in Fukushima of 6 magnitude which I felt clearly in west Tokyo) nobody can really get back to normal life. The nuclear situation seems to change every day and people aren't sure if they should worry or not. People back home in the US keep asking me about the nuclear reactors and I really have nothing I can tell that isn't in the news. I get all my information from the news as well and it's very hard to know what to trust. For now, to the best of my knowledge, Tokyo is a safe area radiation-wise. That's all I can speak for though since the situation changes so often.
Despite Tokyo not being one of the harder-hit areas, there has been a lot of panic buying of water and bread. A lot of people can't get to work because of the power outages and trains being stopped. It looks like it's going to take quite a bit more time before life can get back to a semblance of normality in Tokyo.
As for me, a quick update about what's been happening at the CRASH command center.
Things are moving along and the volunteers have poured in - What began with 6 or 7 volunteers the day after the disaster has grown to about 50 people at any given time working here at Matsukawa Place in Higashi Kurume.
My group in Kabe tried to get in to volunteer on Monday but we found that leaving at 8am was too late and traffic had gotten so bad we had to turn around or waste precious gas sitting in traffic. So we went back to the church and did what we could from there - answering phones, helping update the CRASH website, and putting together training manuals for teams going into disaster areas.
Tuesday (yesterday) we left much earlier, at 5am, and made it to the command center before 7. So, success! But a tired success.
I was put on the team that manages press and fund raising so I helped out by writing some of the press releases we are sending out, and putting CRASH news up on the web. It's very very important to keep attention on this disaster and the relief efforts of CRASH so that we can continue to get volunteers and funding as we prepare to send teams in.
The atmosphere here at the command center is one of intensity and concentration. We have separate teams working on press, volunteer coordination, communications, base camp assessment, and more. Yesterday volunteers were here working from before 9am through midnight and today is looking to be about the same. There is so much work to be done and with the nuclear situation so volatile our plans for teams could change at any time.
What we most need right now is: Prayer, bottled water to send into the affected areas, and funding. We have many teams who have volunteered to come from churches all across the world and help in the relief efforts, and as soon as our assessment teams can find safe places to set up base camps we'll start having those teams come in.
The volunteers here are really amazing. A lot of us are missionaries, but we also have a lot of normal people volunteeering their time and a huge amount of high school students from Christian Academy Japan which is next door to the command center.
Some of the youth went to downtown Shibuya yesterday and simply by asking people for help were able to raise about $400 in donations.
Don't think you can't help - please even if you can't donate your own money, you can help us spread the news about CRASH and help us raise funds.
Please share these links with as many people as you can:
CRASH Japan: http://crashjapan.com/
CRASH Japan Facebook page "Love On Japan": http://www.facebook.com/crashjapan
CRASH Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/crashjapan
Sorry if this post is a little disconnected. I'm not really awake fully. Today looks like it's gonna be another long day.
1 comment :
I am sorry that all of you have to experience this event. More so for the people of Japan my heart goes out to them. I wish I had the power to turn back the hands of time and rescue everyone:( Be safe...
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