International Group Provides Aid In Japan

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

The death toll is climbing in Japan from Friday's earthquake and tsunami. Officials say more than 3,000 are confirmed dead. Thousands more are missing; 450,000 people are estimated to be living in temporary shelters - and this at a time when temperatures are sinking below freezing at night.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

Now, we're going to hear from one of the many relief agencies trying to help people in Japan. ShelterBox distributes boxes of aid to families who were displaced. Each box contains blankets, cooking equipment, and a tent for as many as 10 people.

Lasse Petersen is the group's international director, and he joins us from Tokyo. He just returned from Sendai. Welcome to the program, Mr. Petersen.

Mr. LASSE PETERSEN (International Director, ShelterBox): Thank you, Robert.

SIEGEL: And as I understand it, you've been to some terribly hard-hit areas. You're back in Tokyo to get boxes to distribute. How would you describe the areas that you saw?

Mr. PETERSEN: Yes, we arrived on Saturday, literally 24 hours after the disaster, organized transport then, and headed up to Sendai and then on to Minamisanriku, some of the worst-affected areas that were hit by the tsunami. When you first come into Sendai, it doesn't look too bad. The areas just affected by the earthquake, the buildings have stood up remarkably well.

But as soon as you get closer to the coast where the tsunami struck, pretty well everything has been wiped out. As you head further north up to Minamisanriku, which was a town of 17,000 people, literally every single home has been destroyed. Only a few on the hilltop survived. The homes have been turned into piles of debris almost like matchsticks.

There are a few concrete structures, the shells of buildings still standing. Some of them are three stories high and, you know, piled with debris on the roof with cars thrown up above three stories.

SIEGEL: Now, I read this on ShelterBox's website: The Japanese government has not yet requested any international assistance for the provision of emergency shelter, but has put great value in international aid agencies operating autonomously and self-sufficiently in the country as ShelterBoxes. Does that remain the case, that the government hasn't actually asked for more shelter assistance - or has that changed? And why? Why?

Mr. PETERSEN: I think at the moment, their focus is on search and rescue. So they had called for a couple of international search and rescue teams to come in, and some of them are working now with the Japanese. Beyond that, I think their challenge is that they're still in the stage of, you know, not having established exactly what they need, and where they need it.

So the government's not in a position at the moment to support a raft of international agencies. However, if you do turn up and you can be self-sufficient, today we're up meeting with local officials and authorities in Sendai, visiting some of the emergency evacuations that have been established. And what they're gearing up for, of course, is that the needs are going to be greater as the focus turns away from search and rescue work in the next few days. It will become more on to, you know, dealing with the survivors and the evacuees.

SIEGEL: And when you spoke with the local authorities in Sendai, what did they tell you were their greatest needs right now?

Mr. PETERSEN: At the moment, obviously, there's a group of civilian and military officials who are, you know, very busy working on the nuclear issues. And then they're dealing with the basics that many areas don't have power and just supplying people with clean water. And then the running of their emergency centers, now the evacuation centers - which, you know, the first place they're going to there is elementary schools and community halls.

But of course, what's happening with some of those is that they're overflowing, and people are being turned away. They're getting stories that, you know, some people, therefore, are living out of their cars.

But they haven't yet got numbers and locations and, you know, registering where they are. And so they're still at that stage where, you know, they're trying to identify the best places to house people, bearing in mind that with the uncertainty of the nuclear situation, you don't want to establish locations for, you know, people, only to then have to move them again if that situation deteriorates over the coming days.

SIEGEL: Well, Mr. Petersen, thank you very much for talking with us, and good luck with it.

Mr. PETERSEN: Thank you. Good to talk with you.

SIEGEL: Good to talk with you. Lasse Petersen, who is international director for ShelterBox, speaking to us from Tokyo about that group's efforts to help people in Japan.

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