Elderly woman and teenage grandson found alive among ruins of their home in Ishinomaki
Nine days after they were believed killed by the tsunami, an elderly woman and her teenage grandson were found alive in the rubble of their home in north-east Japan on Sunday. The 80-year-old and the boy survived by eating yoghurt and other scraps of food salvaged from a refrigerator after being trapped in Ishinomaki, one of the worst-hit coastal cities.
They were found by police when 16-year-old Jin Abe called for help from the roof of their residence. He had been trapped for a week and finally managed to pull himself through a hole in the debris and alert rescue workers.
His grandmother, Sumi Abe, was unable to free herself because her legs were caught under furniture. When she was found, she was shaking and had a low temperature, but was conscious and able to answer questions coherently. Jin had lost feeling in one of his legs and showed symptoms of hypothermia. The survivors have endured a snowstorm and freezing temperatures without electricity or heating.
Amid widespread jubilation, the national broadcaster NHK ran images of a helicopter winching the survivors out of danger in a yellow harness. They are both now receiving medical treatment in the Ishinomaki Red Cross hospital.
"I always believed he was alive," Jin's father told reporters.
The astonishing rescue has given a much-needed boost to emergency workers amid a grim and growing death toll from Japan's deadliest disaster since the second world war. The casualty list stands at 8,277 dead and 12,722 missing and the figures are rising daily.
The situation at the evacuation shelters – where more than 400,000 homeless people have sought refuge – has improved, but it remains inadequate and vastly different from place to place.
At Ishinomaki, the situation remains tough. "Some of us are still just eating one meal a day," said Yoshinori Sato, the secretary of the municipal press office. "Assistance is coming, but it is two or three days behind other areas."
Further up the coast, however, the town of Onnagawa, which was flattened by the tsunami, is receiving more than adequate aid.
“We have enough food and blankets and a surplus of kerosene for heating," said Hironori Suzuki, the chief of the planning department. "The priority now is baths. People have been in shelters for 10 days without proper sanitation. Baths would make a big difference."
Similar views were expressed at the local hospital, where the office manager Toshihiko Abe said the emergency medical needs have largely been met.
"We probably have all we need in terms of material goods. Now the next stage is to rebuild infrastructure and to address the psychological needs of the displaced people, They have lost their homes and their histories, which leads to anxiety. This is something we need to address," he said.
New elemental challenges continue to plague the recovery effort. The sea returned to the streets of northern Japan on Sunday, although this time it was a creeping high tide rather than a surging tsunami that caused the damage. Homes and roads were flooded by the rising waters, which bubbled up through sewers and drains. Cars and trucks had to turn back from inundated routes in Ishinomaki and Samada. Locals, whose homes had survived the seismic disaster, were faced with a fresh crisis as the waters flooded through their property.
While the high tide posed no immediate threat to life, it could prove a longer term worry because it shows how the coastline has been permanently and dramatically shifted by last week's massive, magnitude nine earthquake.
"It's just one thing after another, but there is nothing we can do. The earthquake drove the coastline down by 75 centimetres and today is the high tide so we cannot stop the water," said Yoshinori Abe as he splashed through the flooded streets.
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