Gas

I've waited in line for gas for three days, and I still haven't gotten any gas.  The main supply route--both trains and trucks--ran through Sendai.  All shipments to our area have been re-routed up the west coast through Akita and over the mountains.  The best mountain roads run into Morioka.  South of Morioka all of the mountain roads running to the west coast are narrow, often only one lane.  I would NOT want to drive a semi over one of those puppies.

Everyday some grocery stores are opened.  Everyday maybe one or two gas stations get fuel.  People wait in lines for hours for ten or twenty liters.  I've waited in line for three days.  The first day I was unprepared.  I didn't take water or a book.  The line was over a mile and a half long.  I waited an hour and moved less than 100 yards.  I gave up.

On day two, I took coffee, a snack, and a book.  I was about a quarter mile from the station when I pulled up at 6:40am, well before the station should open.  The line crept forward...far too slowly.  Then  a man walked by with his arms in an "X."  No gas. 

Today, I got in the wrong line.  No gas.

We are so lucky.  Some people I know only got power back yesterday.  Many people still don't have power or water.  Many people don't have homes.  Many people lost their families.  We're some of the fortunate ones.  We have food, gas to cook with, and water to drink.  Kerosene for heaters is harder to come by, but we have coats and wool socks.

Many people are panicked.  Several foreigners I know have broken contract and left with less than a day's notice.  People in the the US are getting information filtered through the media.  All you see is a burning nuclear reactor and the devastated coastal towns.  A few miles inland and the damage isn't so bad.  A nearby town was hit fairly hard.  A lot of the older buildings were damaged, but I haven't heard of anyone being hurt or killed.  If you have family in the area, please don't panic.  Ask them for an honest assessment of their situation.  As little as ten miles can make a huge impact on the situation someone is in here.  Keep calm, encourage your family and don't listen to CNN.  Go to BBC or NHK World or Japan Today.  Japan Today is up and down (I think their servers might be getting hit by rolling blackouts in Tokyo).


Our town had a few broken windows, but I didn't hear any reports of fires or collapsed buildings.  Now we just have to ride out the shortages and keep an eye on Fukushima.

With so little gas, there is very little traffic.  It begins to feel eerie.  Many students don't come to school because their parents don't have gas.  Pretty soon, a whole bunch of Toyotas and Mazdas are going to be very fancy pieces of sculpture.

It's hard to believe how much our modern world relies on gas.  Without gas for trucks, grocery stores are closed.  Without gas, workers can't get to work, so stores don't open.  Gas really is a corner stone of our economy.

Please don't worry about us.  Our area is relatively okay.  We're far enough away from Fukushima that a meltdown isn't really an imminent threat. 

I'm going to write a post soon about what I think is important for preparation before this sort of thing happens.  Stay tuned and thanks for keeping us in our thoughts and prayers.  So far, we're doing fine.

The Earthquake

Hey, everyone.  We're okay. It's 3:15 now, so don't consider this a news update.

Our area wasn't as hard hit as places as little as 20km south.  As soon as the quake hit, the power was out, so we didn't even know how bad things were.  Late Saturday night we saw newspaper pictures from the coast...

I'm sure to many of you, the names of Ofunato, Hachinohe, and others are just images or news videos of places with names that are hard to pronounce.  To us, those are places we've been, the homes of teachers' families.  I've fished in Ofunato.  The videos you see of a harbor surrounded by rubble are places I've driven through.

The video of Sendai airport's runway being flooded by a tsunami might seem terrible to see, but we landed on that runway.

In the time it has taken to write these few sentences, we've felt two more aftershocks, 48 hours after the first quake.  We have power and internet.  We never lost water.  Meanwhile, entire towns were being swept away.

Nuclear power plants are damaged and in danger of melting down.  Another strong aftershock could hit any time.  Right now life is a strange balance of routine and troubling potential.  We went to the grocery store to stock up on food in case we need it.  Part of me was interested to see what people had bought (there was no instant ramen or soup mix, but lots of cookies and chips were still on the shelves).  Iin the grocery store, ceiling tiles and a few lights had fallen.  The lady asked us if we had our point card.

I'm not sure what to write right now, and I'm pretty distracted, so I won't ramble.

If you are wondering how you can help, I would ask you to think of all the major disasters in the past decade.  This level of disaster doesn't get better with a one time donation or visit.  As you see what is happening in Japan, don't forget Haiti and Indonesia, where the government wasn't as well prepared.  There economies--and much more importantly--their people still need help.  Don't forget them.

As far as helping Japan, I have no idea.  I've seen Red Cross vehicles on the roads, so if you contact the American Red Cross, maybe they can help direct you.

Thank you for the concern and the prayers.