Tohoku Pacific Earthquake: Report 12 on Medical Activities on the ground - Médecins du Monde Japan

Four months after the earthquake, 47% of all the rubble has been cleared in Iwate Prefecture. As you can imagine from that figure, there is a tremendous change in the scenery here. I notice as I travel to Ohtsuchi after a meeting in the Kamaishi Health Center that the potholes have all been filled in and replaced by a nice, new road. Roads previously blocked by rubble have been opened again. Some sections of road are now so well repaired that the surface looks like calm water covering a rice field. There have been great changes in the people as well as the scenery. At the beginning of June, only a handful of people remained in the evacuation shelters. During the day, people were out and about, reclaiming their lives and getting on with daily business – clearing up the coastline, returning to their homes to clean them, looking for work.