I have seen so many different disasters on the news. It seems like every year there is at least one major disaster around the world that draws international attention. There are relief funds put in place, people donate, feel like good people, and move on with their day. It usually falls under the attitude that it’s not my country; I did my part; let’s move on.
I don’t know that I will ever watch a disaster news story quite the same again. Off the coast of Japan, I watched debris, trash, and whole trees float past us. What struck me the most, however, were the life rafts and fishing boats that we had to maneuver around. There were tons of life rafts, pieces of wood tied together in an attempt to serve as a raft, and whole fishing boats that were abandoned, aimlessly floating. I couldn’t help but wonder each time we passed one how many people started out in that raft. We ensured there were no people in them as we passed; each time I silently prayed for there to be someone still in them. That would have been just one more person who survived this tragedy.
Sadly, the only person we recovered did not survive the experience. It was demoralizing to recover the remains of someone, but we did find solace in the fact that we could provide closure to at least one Japanese family. We returned the remains to the Japanese government, so they could give them to the family to have a proper burial. As terrible as it was to think about this, I know that was well worth the search efforts…to have made a difference to at least one family.
The helicopter crew from our ship patrolled the waters closer to land where we could not go and scanned the shoreline. One of them told me he didn’t think he could find a word to describe what they saw on the ground, that devastation didn’t begin to cover it.
This has reminded me just how short life can be…. March 11th began as a beautiful sunny day in Japan…by noon the day was as dark as they come.
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