Hundreds of thousands of cars were lost in the Japan Tsunami

With no car, road to recovery rough for Japan's aged and ill

SENDAI, Japan A shortage of automobiles is making it difficult for survivors of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami to get to work, visit health care facilities, stay in contact with loved ones and pursue other activities crucial to rebuilding their lives.

The tsunami destroyed or washed away a huge number of cars in the Tohoku region. More than 140,000 vehicles are believed to have been lost in Miyagi Prefecture alone.

With railroads and other public transport systems not yet fully restored, automobiles are a necessity for people living in disaster areas. But with new and used cars in short supply, many people are forced to travel long distances on foot or by bicycle.

Yoshie Sato, 45, a part-time employee at a confectionery shop in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, had two cars before the Great East Japan Earthquake. Both were destroyed by tsunami, as was her house, with one car washed away before her eyes as she fled the waters.

Her husband Hiroyoshi, 44, had to spend more than two hours every day on a bicycle given to him by a relative just to commute between work and the evacuation center they moved to.

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/05/11/2009623/with-no-car-road-to-recovery-rough.html#ixzz1M4d4c61u


Disaster survivors getting gouged in search for replacement vehicles

The destruction of hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the March 11 tsunami has brought a cruel arithmetic of supply and demand to the disaster area, as some used car dealers are gouging buyers.

There are even reports of so-called "disaster survivor prices," while empty lots in tsunami-ravaged areas like Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, are filling with rows of used cars on offer by absentee sellers. The situation is being further exacerbated by a decline in the number of used cars on the market from before the disaster, triggered by a government program to promote low-emission vehicles.

The family of one 47-year-old woman in Rikuzentakata lost all three of its vehicles to the tsunami. Her 21-year-old son bought a car soon after to get to work, but the family has yet to replace their light truck, essential for restarting their tatami business. There is a 2004 model light truck with some 50,000 kilometers on the odometer on offer at a recently reopened dealership -- for 700,000 yen plus, or more than an entry level Suzuki light truck costs new.

"We can't get back on our feet without a truck," the woman laments

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110511p2a00m0na013000c.html

Yes .. The nuclear disaster is bad news .... but it was the tsunami that ripped up the whole world (including the reactors), and threw it into a giant churn, only to spit it back out in useless heaps ...

This is as awful as awful can be ....

for the same reason: nearly every car on the entire island was damaged.

Fun (?) fact: 'Iniki made landfall on -- September 11. Nine years later, Kaua'i residents could only shaked their heads sadly...