August 31: Temporary Shelters Empty at Last

NHK news showed smiling kids and adults sweeping out a junior high gym in Japan's Iwate Prefecture. The hall had been used as an emergency shelter after the devastating tsunami/earthquake of March 11 and will be returned to service as the school gym when the new semester begins next month. This one was the last to be officially closed, after sheltering families for almost 6 months.

All 14,000 households who had made their homes in the various emergency shelters in Iwate--the prefecture hardest hit--have been relocated in pre-fab housing units constructed over the past six months. The units are for single family occupancy, and have a private bath (with hot water), plus kitchen space, sleeping space, and living space.