Maribel Izcue. Ishinomaki (Japan) .- Clean mud, repairing houses and delivering food, hundreds of volunteers work these days in the city of Ishinomaki Japan, devastated by the tsunami on 11 March and which little by little, some streets are returning to life. The campus of the University of Senshu in the upper part of the city, has become the headquarters of the young people from all over Japan to lend a hand after the worst tragedy in living memory in this country since World War II.
Dozens of tents were erected in the esplanade university near the stands where newcomers are recorded to assist in the rebuilding effort, which is trying to accelerate before reaching the hot summer. Police at last count, the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 caused nearly 28,000 dead or missing, of which only 5000 Ishinomaki, the second largest city in the area behind Sendai.
The large body of water that followed the earthquake of 9 Richter invaded the city and urban wiped out the harbor area, which still appears as a succession of rubble, shattered buildings and overturned vehicles. Despite the trail of mud and the wreckage still visible in every corner, many of the refugees who had to leave for lack of water, gas and electricity have begun to return to their homes, groups of volunteers trying to make it habitable.
"At the current rate it will take about 800 days for the whole affected coast is clean again," estimates Mai Inoue, a young resident in Sendai that travels weekends Ishinomaki, equipped with high boots and thick rubber gloves to participate in relief efforts. Along with four other volunteers, Mai calls to the door of a house from which has reached a plea for help: an old woman passed and tells you everything you need to remove the tatami floor, more than a month later still wet by the tsunami and makes the place uninhabitable.
Soaked, each padded tatami-mat covering the floor in Japanese homes, can weigh 100 kilos, so the task of removing them is overwhelming for the elderly who have survived the catastrophe and, upon returning home from centers refugees, are still flooded. While working to raise the floor, Akira Watanabe, another volunteer, says that he lived near the Kobe earthquake (south) in 1995 killed more than 6,000 people, so when the tragedy took place the month past did not hesitate to move to put their two cents.
A scorched area was on 14 March and since then travels through the coastal villages destroyed to help as he can, he adds, before concluding its work, place your furniture in place and connect the TV, miraculously, it works and makes that the elderly are excited. According to Police figures released today, more than half of those killed by the tsunami and the earthquake were older than 65 years, those who have survived are among the most vulnerable and rely heavily on volunteers.
The latest figures speak at 2,783 dead and 2,770 missing in Ishinomaki, almost a third of the 8,437 people dead and 7,757 unaccounted for in the province of Miyagi, where in addition there are still about 45,000 refugees. Along with volunteers, the city also work Self-Defense Forces (Army), which have cleared the roads and piled the debris to the sides to allow passage of vehicles, although there are more traffic lights do not work.
The Government plans to start building on the uptown temporary housing for evacuees, many of whom came from the port area which was completely wiped out in the middle of next May. 
Dozens of tents were erected in the esplanade university near the stands where newcomers are recorded to assist in the rebuilding effort, which is trying to accelerate before reaching the hot summer. Police at last count, the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 caused nearly 28,000 dead or missing, of which only 5000 Ishinomaki, the second largest city in the area behind Sendai.
The large body of water that followed the earthquake of 9 Richter invaded the city and urban wiped out the harbor area, which still appears as a succession of rubble, shattered buildings and overturned vehicles. Despite the trail of mud and the wreckage still visible in every corner, many of the refugees who had to leave for lack of water, gas and electricity have begun to return to their homes, groups of volunteers trying to make it habitable.
"At the current rate it will take about 800 days for the whole affected coast is clean again," estimates Mai Inoue, a young resident in Sendai that travels weekends Ishinomaki, equipped with high boots and thick rubber gloves to participate in relief efforts. Along with four other volunteers, Mai calls to the door of a house from which has reached a plea for help: an old woman passed and tells you everything you need to remove the tatami floor, more than a month later still wet by the tsunami and makes the place uninhabitable.
Soaked, each padded tatami-mat covering the floor in Japanese homes, can weigh 100 kilos, so the task of removing them is overwhelming for the elderly who have survived the catastrophe and, upon returning home from centers refugees, are still flooded. While working to raise the floor, Akira Watanabe, another volunteer, says that he lived near the Kobe earthquake (south) in 1995 killed more than 6,000 people, so when the tragedy took place the month past did not hesitate to move to put their two cents.
A scorched area was on 14 March and since then travels through the coastal villages destroyed to help as he can, he adds, before concluding its work, place your furniture in place and connect the TV, miraculously, it works and makes that the elderly are excited. According to Police figures released today, more than half of those killed by the tsunami and the earthquake were older than 65 years, those who have survived are among the most vulnerable and rely heavily on volunteers.
The latest figures speak at 2,783 dead and 2,770 missing in Ishinomaki, almost a third of the 8,437 people dead and 7,757 unaccounted for in the province of Miyagi, where in addition there are still about 45,000 refugees. Along with volunteers, the city also work Self-Defense Forces (Army), which have cleared the roads and piled the debris to the sides to allow passage of vehicles, although there are more traffic lights do not work.
The Government plans to start building on the uptown temporary housing for evacuees, many of whom came from the port area which was completely wiped out in the middle of next May.
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