Any recent updates? The news we're hearing over here is not good. They say Japan has had another earthquake and the nuclear plants are still unsafe. . .
I felt the huge aftershock way up here in Hokkaido. Patty was asleep already, but it swayed our 5th floor apt. pretty well. Some felt it up here and some did not. I think three were dead and over 100 injured from that, according to Japanese news.
Our missionary Dan Roberts has been going into the earthquake area every week now. He takes in a truck load of fresh vegetables and other items to 14 different shelters. The photos he sends are shocking and sad. Many people up in the mountain areas of Miyagi have still not been reached by the Japan Self Defense Forcees. Those areas are where Brother Roberts has been visiting. Our mission board has had over $7000 come in to help the effort.
Having said that, the large majority of refugees are being reached and helped, and Sendai and other cities are gradually getting cleaned up. The exceptions are the two cities which were basically wiped off the map by the tsunami. They are working there to clean up, and today's news showed the clean up being done by heavy machinery, with volunteers looking through the mess for personal items such as photos and possessions to give to survivors. But the task is absolutely huge.
Concerning the nuclear disaster, it's hard to tell what is going on there. The TV news and the newspapers give accounts, but the government and TEPCO (the power people) are really not very forthcoming. But today in the newspaper they had a map/chart comparing this disaster with Chernobyl, and it's not yet near how bad that one was. I'd say they are starting to get the nuclear plant situation under control here. But people are still nervous about it.