One of the major cities in the Tohoku area, Sendai is a bustling historic city with a major University. Normally the streets are lined with designer shops and restaurants. The first thing you would have seen, arriving in Sendai before the earthquake would have been the food court where you could have sampled hundreds of different local delicacies at the Bullet train station. My aunt’s house is a bus ride from the city centre, not in a remote and inaccessible place to get to.
How then can it be that the world’s “most sophisticated /well trained /stoical” armies of rescue workers cannot help my aunt?
One of the main issues, as I understand is the lack of petrol, which is hampering transportation and also while essential supplies are slowly getting into the area, the distribution system is not geared up for the individual residents who are not in one of these big rescue centres.
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I know that my aunt’s situation is only moderately serious compared to others, because of their location and the fact she has family members around her.
But there are others, outside of the media attention, already perishing due to malnutrition and hypothermia linked to the lack of essential supplies, even though they have survived the Quake and Tsunami.