14 March 2011 NICCO's Secretary-General　Norimasa Orii

On 13th March, we took a flight from Itami, Osaka to Fukushima prefecture. On 14th, we reached Natori city, which is where the severely affected Sendai airport is located. NICCO's partner organization, Frontline, is also in Natori city. (Frontline website: http://www.e-stageone.org/). Tohoku International clinic is in the same building as Frontline. The clinic has narrowly escaped severe damage because the tsunami was stopped by a nearby riverbank. This side of the river was hit by a 30 cm wave, but the city on the other side of the river is devastated. Since early this morning, patients have been visiting the clinic in an endless stream. Water and electricity supply has stopped, and people gather in a shelter (schools,etc) in the city and stay there. Please take a look at these pictures that indicate the scale of the disaster. Now, I will go to meet local government officials for coordination of support activity, and visit shelters to research the needs of the affected people.

You can make a donation from NICCO's website for the earthquake in Japan.
http://www.kyoto-nicco.org/english/donation/index.html
We sincerely hope that the victims will soon recover, and pray for them.