These are some of the photos of the Mashiki area I took today. The damage was far greater than what I had seen on Friday, before the second quake.

As I walked around the neighborhoods, I asked the people I met if there was anything I could do to help. In most cases, they thanked me for offering but said there was nothing I could do. In one case, however, I was able to help a gentleman, a man who seemed to be somewhat older than I am (I'm in my late 50s) move some heavy boxes of salvaged items into a car. The gentlemen told me about a neighbor who was unaccounted for and whose house had been demolished by one of the quakes. Because he was unaccounted for, a huge rescue effort was mounted to attempt to get the man out of the house. My interlocutor said that a group of about 50 people, including media, gathered at the scene for a number of hours while rescuers probed the rubble. Finally, it was learned that the man had left the area without telling anyone but was safe in a relative's home.

In a way, it's a happy ending but the sad part is that the efforts of the personnel involved in the rescue effort were wasted. If they had not been distracted, perhaps they might have found and saved someone else. The moral of the story is "In an emergency situation, make sure people know where you are going before you leave."

In regard to the photos, there was no end to the devastation in Mashiki. The photos are samples of what the earthquakes did, but I might have taken hundreds more such photos if I had had the time to visit other neighborhoods nearby.

Kirk Masden

Tag: Photography