A local volunteer remembers the 2011 earthquake relief efforts in Japan | News

The Japanese government has set a 10-year timeline for removing the massive damage after the 11th March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. In the decade since they removed, recycled and burned tons of debris and restored infrastructure and housing.

The need to rebuild was of the utmost importance and help came from all over the world. In the early stages, search and rescue teams came from the United States, Australia, India, New Zealand, China and South Korea. Pledges of financial and material support came from the Red Cross and Red Crescent and relief organizations in other countries.

The Rotary Valley Walla Walla Nun sent donations to the sister club Rotary of Japan, and help came from a local man who previously spent two weeks at a student exchange in Sasayama in 2005.

One year after the disaster, while in a Japanese language class at Washington State University, Walla Alan Eric Flores, who was 23 at the time, heard a presentation from the YMCA in Greater Seattle, which sought cooperation with the Japan Business Association. In Seattle to get help cleaning up the community of students.

“I would like to go out and help,” he recalls, and without hesitation, he signed up. He paid his fare, but then the Seattle YMCA covered housing and transportation costs during his stay in Japan from May 9 to 23, 2012.

His crew was running on an express train from Tokyo to the smaller, hard-hit towns two hours north. Y set the project agenda for Flores’ group of 12 volunteers whose first project was in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, 80 miles west of the epicenter. Ten in the group were from WSU and the other two from the University of Idaho in Moscow.

“(The organizers) kept us really busy,” Flores said.

Fors said most of the strawberry farmers in Sendai lost everything in the tsunami and left the area. The most satisfying project he worked on was working on a farm there to help a couple and their oldest son get on their feet.

We helped them by digging an irrigation canal to bring strawberries with water. We got into it, we got dirty. The work was all handcrafted with shovels. “

“It was so big, maybe 40 feet long, 10 feet wide and 3 feet deep. We were all there together for two solid days of digging, digging and setting the wheels.”

They lifted and moved large machines and other things as well.

“The family was very grateful. It was nice that we could help and they offered us strawberries. I felt good after that.”

He said there was a lot of destruction. Without electricity, the traffic lights were not working in some areas so I got up early in the morning and acted as monitors to cross the school for children to cross safely at intersections in the city. They also helped replace the siding of an elderly woman’s home.

By express train, they arrived at Miyako Shi, Iwate Prefecture, north of Sendai, and stayed at the church.

“We used to sleep where they used to hold mass,” Flores said. “They removed the seats and made a big room.” “The volunteers, the locals, cooked dinner for us. We had warm food at night and they made breakfast every morning. We had to try all the local foods.”

Among the work projects, volunteers were taken to see the most affected areas, including a school for young children.

He said, “They gathered all the children’s toys scattered around them and set up a shrine for them.” No one escaped because they went inside instead of climbing a nearby hill and perishing. The hospital was filled with mud and deserted. You can find toys and things on Earth. It was hard to see all this. “

“They toured with us and explained through an interpreter what happened in different places, the destruction, the floods, and the cars on the buildings,” said Flores. “It was bad. There were a lot of difficult things to deal with. I remember being sad most of the time. However, I felt really good because I was there and wished I could go help sooner.”

“In Miyako they took us to that sea wall and (the residents there) told us that they thought nothing could pass through this wall, people went to the wall and saw a tsunami coming in, not realizing that it was going to overflow and fail. They took us to this really high spot, looking at it. The ocean, at least 100 feet away, and the water reached where we were standing. I was amazed. How is that possible? He said, “Mother Nature is so powerful.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t seem like we were working, but our mere presence helped lift people’s spirits,” said Flores in 2012 in an article by Robert Kitts, chair of the Wala Walla-Sasayama Belonging Committee. “Cleaning up debris is frustrating, but something really needs to be done. Every day things look a little better.”

Miyako is famous for her tsunami videos climbing up the shore barrier, hauling cars, ships and buildings with her. “It was a famous scene in the video, the ocean washing water over the sea wall down to the city. They were the most affected there, everything was flattened to the ground. It was all foundations, no buildings left. It was really bad. They were working on cleaning in.” That year. “

It was his first time in Japan on a two-week homestay with two host parents. He went with the Wala City Belonging Committee Group – Sasayama sponsored by Keats.

“Sasayama is similar in size to Walla Walla. I felt at home there. I loved the people, they are very nice and welcoming, so to come back and help in 2012, I didn’t think twice. I went to the first media meeting and was ready to go.”

He said that his time there in 2012 affects the way he lives his life. “I am more grateful and try not to take things for granted. The damage was so massive, it changed the way I see and value my family. When I saw how some of these families were destroyed, I definitely missed my family while I was there.” Family is everything and he feels lucky to be close to him.

It also researches how to do volunteer work to benefit others. He had hoped to start with the Blues Crew in 2020, but it just didn’t keep up with his schedule. Now he is looking forward to this year to participate.

He graduated in 2006 from Walla Walla High School, took a three-year leave of absence, obtained an undergraduate degree in 2011 from Walla Walla Community College and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2014 from Washington State University.

Ten years later, Flores works as an accountant for property management and real estate development firm Tarragon Northwest in Walla Walla.

Since he and his partner Kelly Keats had daughter Queen Flores only 10 months ago, they put on hold plans to visit Japan.

“I definitely want to go to Japan again soon, maybe in the next two years, and connect with the strawberry farmer. It’s in the books.”

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