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Noto Earthquake Relief: First Report
As mentioned on the previous update, Habitat Japan has sent a staff member, Kimiko Mimura to earthquake affected Noto Peninsula to assess the victims' needs and the possibility for Habitat's expertise in housing to play a role in the recovery. She is gathering information while working at a volunteer center. The following is the first report from Noto.
On April 2, National Director StefanoTsukamoto will leave for Noto to deliver blue tarpaulin sheets. These tarpaulin sheets were donated by Cosmos Initia co.ltd..
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Evacuation centers
At the evacuation centers, there were plenty of relief goods for the earthquake victims and volunteer workers. Plenty of volunteers on hand insured that the goods were promptly distributed.
According to the local newspaper, the Hokkoku Shimbun, 1,067 people volunteered at the Wajima Disaster Response Volunteer Center. Anamizu had 276 volunteers. There were other volunteers who arrived on the 21 free shuttle buses from the Kanazawa City area. Once they arrived at the Volunteer Center, these volunteers were assigned to their respective posts, including the evacuation centers.
At the three evacuation centers in Anamizu, there was little privacy but there seemed to be enough space for sleeping. Many of the evacuees were older people. Those senior citizens with special needs were transferred to other centers. When I visited at around 10:00 AM, the futons had already been folded and there were a several evacuees lying down. The low number of evacuees was probably because many had returned to check and clean their houses. The evacuation centers are situated near the Anamizu Disaster Response Volunteer Center, hence it was easy for the evacuees to go back and forth.
At the Monzen (a town in Wajima City) evacuation centers, on the other hand, there were more people. I could not help but feel that it was crowded; yet there was enough space for sleeping. I visited Monzen East Elementary school. This is the Monzen Disaster Response Volunteer Center. I also visited Wajima Monzen Kaikan and Monzen West Elementary school. These three evacuation centers are close to each other, but the other evacuation centers were somewhat far apart.
At the West Elementary school, there were free health care check up and consultations from the doctors. Some people were just lying down; the children were playing around outside.
Both at Anamizu and Monzen, there were bath service offered by the Self-Defense Force and other organizations. People could take a bath but not everyday. There were free foot baths services offered by volunteers.
Activity
Today (March 31), along with staff from the AJU wheel chair center and Self Sustained Life Support Center Toyama, I helped to place partitions at three evacuation 
centers in Anamizu. I initially met these staff members at
the Anamizu Disaster Response Volunteer Center.
After that, we went to the sports gym of Monzenmachi in Wajima City to bring more partitions. I talked with the staff about the blue tarpaulin sheets. I then left to visit other evacuation centers in that area.
◆Past reports:
- Help Needed: Disaster Relief for the Noto Earthquake
