'Miss Keiko' returns from relief-effort trip to Japan
23.02.09
When Keiko Ito arrived in Onagawa, one of the Japanese towns hit hard by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, she said it was like stepping into a war zone.
She saw whole apartment buildings flopped on their sides. Parts of the buildings were smashed into each other or were on top of cars. There were even cars hanging off of the rooftops of four-story buildings.
"There was debris everywhere," said Tokyo native Ito, who teaches Spanish and Japanese at Park City schools. "Trains laid in abandon on top of hills and were strewn in the town up to a mile away from their tracks. Even fishing boats were miles away from port."
Furthermore, the watermark from the tsunami was more than 40 feet high.
"I could see clothes hanging from tree branches, and to think that it was worse just a few days before I got there," she said.
Ito, known as "Miss Keiko" to her students, spent a day visiting Onagawa and another town, Ishinomaki, on May 15, and delivering donated clothing from Park City
Source: Park Record