Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake
Click on any photo on this page or in pages related to the Niigata earthquake series to see an enlargement
These are photos I took the day after the October 23rd. Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake in Nagaoka City and on the way to Tokamachi, and in Ojiya,the largest town closest to the epicenter on Oct. 29 when I was a volunteer helping the earthquake victims.
The arrow points to the general location of the earthquake |
A detailed map of the earthquake area. The circle surrounds the area of greatest damage. If you click this map, you will see an enlargement with dark lines that represent all the roads and places I've been to before the earthquake. I go through this area on the average of at least a dozen times a year. |
A television crew up bright and early |
One of my favorite hitchhiking spots! The Ojiya entrance of the Kan'etsu Expressway |
Ojiya means "One thousand small valleys" |
On October 29, 2004, together with Megumi and her son Makoto, I went to Ojiya, a city that was one of the hardest hit by the earthquake. There was no damage to our house about 60 kilometers from Ojiya as the crow flies. Though it has been one week since the earthquake, aftershocks continue.
The epicenter of the earthquake was Yamakoshi village which is about 8 kilometers east of Ojiya. It was devastated and has become uninhabitable. All residents have been evacuated from the area. The roads from Ojiya to Yamakoshi are impassible. Only helicopters can go there. Apparently the average house in Yamakoshi has been structurally damaged. Most of the heaviest damage was east of the Shinano River where Yamakoshi and other damaged villages are located.
In Ojiya the damage was mostly to the infrastructure of the city, the waterworks, sewage, telephone poles and roads. Only the very old and structurally weak houses in Ojiya collapsed. The average house was not damaged structurally, only the items inside were damaged. However because of lack of running water and continuing aftershocks, all homes in Ojiya have been evacuated and the townspeople are living in civic centers, town halls or in tents in parking lots, parks, and even camped out in greenhouses in the country! The greenhouses are warm on sunny days but cold at night. The temperature drops down to 3 degrees celsius (37F) or just a little above freezing. But there are plenty of blankets for those sleeping there, and so I suppose it is not that much different than sleeping in a house in Matsumoto in the Winter time. (I lived in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, for 3 years. It gets below freezing at night in the house!)
First we had to register as volunteers at the Disaster Center in Ojiya. It was no problem to do so. It is merely a matter of giving one's name, address, phone number and organization.
We were told that no religious proselytizing is allowed. But we did bring some literature and discretely gave them to the folks we worked closest with.
People from as far as Hyogo Prefecture came as volunteers to help in the relief work. There is now no lack of food, water or personnel to help. Megumi worked in a building where elderly handicapped people where evacuated and ministered to them physically, and I and Makoto did manual work such as filling water jugs and carrying boxes. Makoto played a game with the grammar school children. There is no school for them for a while.
Though there was not really that much for us to do, just our very presence seemed to encourage the victims. One lady told me she appreciated the love and concern of the volunteers who took time off their busy schedule to help out. And of course I was noticed as one of only three foreigners present. One foreigner, a man from Norway, came merely to observe.
An earthquake victim told me that it will be months before they will be able to return to their homes. She thinks it will take that long to restore the roads, water and electricity. But it could be only weeks, not months. At that time, there will be a much greater need for volunteers to help them clean up their homes and resettle in.
| Damage report based on the Niigata Daily News of Oct. 31: |
| # of persons who died: | 36 |
| # of persons injured: | 3173 |
| # of persons evacuated: | 76,615 |
| # of totally destroyed houses: | 312 |
| # of half destroyed houses: | 412 |
| # of partially destroyed houses: | 5782 |
| # of houses that lost electical power: | 4750 |
| # of houses destroyed by fire: | 11 |
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