Spent a few hours today trying to find supplies for the second wave of trucks going this evening. The shelves were completely empty! The picture on the left is from a nearby large grocery store. Fortunately, we were able to get a lot of supplies from neighbors and Grace City members once word was spread about the trucks. The picture below shows the empty shelves wh
ere water once stood. Tonight we will make boxes, fill them with trash bags, and then fill the trash bags in order to distribute water. We also will fill hundreds of doubly layered ziploc freezer bags. Not the best, but there are simply no other kinds of containers available.All trains shut down between Tokyo and Chiba, so the roads were overwhelmingly crowded. Lines to gas stations were many many blocks long. Probably at least an hour wait. Most gas stations we saw were closed because they were out of gas.
The first truck of "scouts" to the hard hit areas came back with stories and experience. They found groups of people in different emergency shelters with no water available at all. Professional help had not arrived yet. People cried when they received the water. Our team rented a second truck, and tonight two trucks will go out at 2 am. I will be driving one of those trucks.
We will first go to Iwaki, where we are connected with a pastor. One truck will then return empty, and the second truck will go further northwest. I've been asked to be part of the second truck also. As soon as I get back, I'll share as much information as I can. We plan for it to be a 2-3 day trip. Pray for our safety and that we'll be of some assistance!
