Today’s post comes from Nele Noppe, a Japanese Studies PhD student living in Kyoto, who helped with tsunami recovery in the Tohuku region of Japan. You can read the original post here.

Tsunami cleaning is slow, filthy work that can take volunteer teams of a dozen people several days per house. Single residents or families can’t even begin to do it all by themselves, especially older people who aren’t physically strong.

By which I definitely don’t want to suggest that all pensioners are helpless victims here. We helped clear out the house of an elderly man who, when the tsunami warning came, stayed behind to warn the tenants of the building they owned next door while his wife saved the family’s little kids by running with them to a shelter.

The water came before the husband could follow them, so he climbed onto the roof of a building in his garden, then used debris floating by to get onto the next roof, and went on like this until he reached the two-story house of his son and got to safety on the second floor there. It would have been an absolutely amazing feat for anyone, but this man was eighty years old.

International Teams 8 and 9 in front of the house mentioned in yesterday's post after we'd finished cleaning.

One small corner of a small printing factory we cleaned. It took about twenty people two and a half days to remove all the soaked, rotting paper and muck from the building. Photo by Bruno Nakandakari.

The printing factory after all debris was removed. Now all the machines and broken walls need to be taken out, and of course that car. It doesn't belong to the factory; it came floating by, crashed through the car port at the back of the building, somehow navigated through some very narrow spaces between various pieces of large and bolted-down machinery, and then wedged itself in.

Most of the houses are still not cleaned out, almost four months after the disaster, and it’s not hard to see why.

The majority of the owners survived, but many lost everything they had, including their cars, and have been staying far away from their houses in refugee shelters or with family members.

Cleaning your house requires getting there, with appropriate equipment, and bringing many, many extra pairs of hands. For those who manage to clear their homes of debris and muck, the work and especially the expenses are only just beginning: floors and walls need to be replaced at the very least, but many houses will have to be torn down and rebuilt almost entirely.

All this requires resources that many people simply don’t have at their disposal. And energy, and will. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be mentally and physically exhausted after surviving that disaster, and then come home after days or weeks to find your house in shreds, everything you own destroyed and scattered all over your property, the roof half ripped off and the outer walls torn away, with the whole neighborhood around you also in ruins and empty of people.

This is why it’s so important that individual volunteers join up and go there to help, even this many months after the disaster.

The government isn’t going to fix all these houses. The people have to do it themselves, and many of them can’t, or don’t know where to even start and just need a boost.

If there’s one thing I learned by working in Ishinomaki, it’s that when something like this happens where I live, I have a personal responsibility to go there, roll up my sleeves, and do what I can. That isn’t very much. I’m not strong or hardy; I never manage to shovel for a long time because my back always starts screaming bloody murder after a few minutes, and I can’t do much to help lift soaked tatami or big pieces of furniture.

But I can do other things that are also necessary, like stuffing bag after bag with smaller debris so that the more muscular people have room to do their shoveling. The bags I filled over a week. There must have been about a million of them. When I look at the mess in my room in Kyoto here, I’m itching to put it all in those big brown bags.

Peace Boat says that after Golden Week, a Japanese vacation period that occurs in May, the number of volunteers took an extremely sharp dive.

But there are so very many homes and businesses left that can’t be rebuilt until someone comes over and helps clear them out. If you have even a few days of free time, please go to Tohoku and help. There’s a job for every pair of hands, regardless of how strong or skilled you are.

All you need is a willingness to wash with wet wipes for a week.

Although we did get to go to an onsen once, and you can get yourself hosed down along with the shovels and wheelbarrows during equipment cleaning time after work. Please try this. I promise it will be the best shower of your entire life.

The Mangattan museum is the round white building. Its first floor and most of the other structures on the island were destroyed.

Nele Noppe is a Manga translator and Japanese Studies PhD student doing research on the cultural economy of fanwork, currently living in Kyoto.

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• Reflections on Tsunami Recovery, Part 1

When a disaster strikes, it’s important to be able to react immediately, and being prepared is an important part of being able to react. Having a family plan in case of a disaster is important, and so is making sure you have enough supplies. Here are some more tips that can help you if a disaster strikes:

Have an escape route. Take the time to draw a floor plan of your home and mark escape routes for each room. Make sure children understand the drawings and have a copy in their rooms. Don’t forget to establish a meeting places in the event of an emergency like a fire.

Know how to shut off your utilities. In the event of a disaster, you may be asked to shut off utility service at your home. It is important to contact your natural gas provider for instructions on how to turn off service because different gas meters have different configurations.

To shut off water, locate the shut off valve where the water comes into your home – it may look like this:

Make sure the valve can be completely shut off – if it’s rusted and won’t close you might want to look into replacing it. Label the valve so that everyone in your family knows where it is and how to turn it off.

Know where your insurance information and other records are. Review your existing policies for the amount and extent of coverage that you have in place so you can rebuild if necessary. If you have a hard time understanding your insurance policy, you can call your insurance agent and talk with them about your concerns.

Keep an inventory of your property for insurance purposes. Keep photos or videos of the interior and exterior of your home along with personal items. Keep the inventory, along with important household documents, in a safe place away from your home like a safety deposit box.

Have a plan for family pets. Just like you, animals can be affected by disasters. Make sure you know a shelter you can take your pets to in case of an evacuation. Gather together pet supplies and vet records, and make sure your pet has proper ID. Provide a carrier and leash for your pet. You can contact your local emergency management office, animal shelter, or animal control office for more advice or information.

Know how to stay safe. It is important that family members know how to administer first aid and CPR, and know how to use a fire extinguisher. Check with your local American Red Cross chapter for information on first aid and CPR training.

For fire extinguishers, make sure you have at least an ABC fire extinguisher – one that is effective on wood or paper fires, electrical fires, and liquid fires.