Sister Lucia Ikuko Yamada, CSJ spent her summer vacation from August 20-22 as a Noto Peninsula earthquake volunteer. Sister Chizuru Yamada, CSJ also volunteered in the disaster area in April. The earthquake occurred on January 1, 2024, and was confirmed as a seismic intensity of 7.5 magnitude. Sister Lucia shared that her heart is heavy due to the present situation.
There are three reasons Sister Lucia can see for the slow recovery. The first reason is the roads collapsing, making it impossible for relief supplies and volunteers to move around. Some roads have manholes sticking out as tall as people.
Second, in the case of Nanao City, there are no meeting places set up in temporary housing, making it difficult to build a community of people from various disaster areas and resulting in earthquake-related deaths.
Third, in Nanao City, free debris disposal has been discontinued. With all these setbacks, we hope and pray for the continued recovery and healing of everyone in Nanao.
Sister Chizuru volunteered at a facility for the intellectually disabled called “Seikuen” located near the epicenter. This facility was the largest facility on the Noto Peninsula, with 130 residents. No evacuation facility could accept all the residents, so they had to evacuate to different locations. The staff also had to be dispersed to each evacuation destination. There was a shortage of manpower.
Sister Chizuru volunteered at one of the evacuation facilities and took care of the people who are disabled. There were 22 men and 18 women taking refuge there. It was about a two-hour drive from the disaster-hit facility. The staff were also victims. Every time they had a day off, they drove two hours to their homes, which were also affected, to clean up and repair, and then returned to the facility. Sister Chizuru said, “We volunteers did everything we could to help the staff and support the residents.”