You'll see an earlier blog here asking "When Do We Go?" The immediate reaction is to want to go up to Tohoku and serve people food, or clear rubble, or do something, anything!
We've been helping CRASH get operational, as volunteer teams work through the process of getting here. The cleanup/rebuilding phase will be the busiest time for teams, but there are four base camps set up already (or is that five, as of today?) and teams are in place, helping in many ways.
Help is needed in driving teams up to base camps, so the answer to "when do we go?" is "tomorrow morning" Don Love and I will drive a team and all their supplies (you can't count on finding anything up there) up to Tono, Iwate Prefecture.
Carol mentioned this fact to the people we know in the community, and this is the result. Now we'll have to go, just to get our apartment space back! Ironically, the assessment teams coming back from the area say that the refugees in shelters have ample food and supplies, but people who are living in homes that were not damaged are suffering, because there are no stores open. So, I imagine these supplies will be directed to them.
More on the trip up north in a couple of days...
