Our church district gathered together, just north of Sendai, where the tsunami damage was greater, to help with the earthquake disaster cleanup. Our job was to clean any garbage and junk that had washed in with the tsunami out of a farm field, so that it could be used again. It was right next to a school that is now abandoned. I think the part that affected me the most was to see this school washed out, and see everything in it just left how it was. There were picture albums, student's artwork, awards, and textbooks just left how they ended up after the tsunami waters receded. They were covered in dirt and grass, but otherwise untouched.
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| This is a photo album of past students in the school. |
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| totaled cars that were all collected and brought here. |
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| I was amazed to see some places really far from shore, still flooded 6 months later. There were many foundations of buildings, left as evidence of all of the buildings that were wiped out. |
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| You can see how high the water reached. |
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| I was amazed to see how many clothing articles I pulled out of this mud. |
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| There was a lot of wood and seashells that we had to clear out of this field, and it wasn't anywhere close to the coast. |
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| This is in the school. It's weird to just see how untouched everything is, including a camera just sitting there. |
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| Student artwork |
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| Textbooks |
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| Student sports team's framed photos |
I'm glad I was able to help out in a small way for the clean up effort. I have felt so close, but so separated and helpless at the same time, as we were not affected that much from the earthquake.
