A Prince George woman, who recently returned from helping the victims of the natural disaster that struck Japan's northeast coast, painted a picture of devastation and destruction that went beyond not only peoples' expectations but imaginations.
In a country where earthquakes are part of life, Seiko Watanabe said the Japanese and their buildings had no trouble coping with the 8.9 magnitude tremor on March 11, but the tsunami that followed afterward was a different story.
Those 10-metre waves that hit the coast were only the beginning of the trouble, she said, as the rush of water pushed its way inland through the rivers and creeks increasing their depths three-and four-fold.
"The devastation was so enormous," Watanabe said Wednesday from Vancouver. "I went to a few of the villages or towns and there is virtually nothing left.
As an occupational therapist, Watanabe was part of a Canadian medical assistance team (CMAT) sent to Ishinomaki, a city of about 164,294 in the Miyagi prefecture, one of the hardest hit regions.
As of March 31, 2,381 deaths had been confirmed in the city with 2,643 unaccounted for.
Watanabe, who grew up in the country, put her language skills to work and acted as a liaison between the Canadians and the Japanese. The team attended to urgent medical needs, particularly of the senior population, at the evacuation centres, both within the city and the outlying fishing villages. The tsunami flattened about 80 per cent of the 700 homes in one village, Kitakamicho Aikawa, about 20 kilometres north of Ishinomaki.
"It was nothing what people imagined or expected," said Watanabe who flew out to Japan on March 22 and was in the country for nearly two weeks.
With electricity out of commission, fresh water was at a premium and the team installed a water purification unit in the village. It's capable of producing 136,800 litres per day.
Recovery will take months and likely years, but the strong sense of community in Japanese culture is working in their favour, Watanabe said.
"People were helping each other and they were very resilient," she said. "It was an amazing thing that I relearned, actually."
