Kasahara in natural desaster, 14 JUL 2012
2012年 07月 21日
On the 12th of July, the hardest rain ever attacked North part of Kyusyu. Not only Kurogi area, but also many other places had serious damages. In Kasahara, where Egaonomori is, mountain slipped and blocked some parts of the main road from Kurogi to Kasahara. The Kasahara River became such a big stream and curved the land, and some people lost their houses with the mud slip or muddy stream.
We Sansonjuku members (family of Tsubahara-san, Miyazono-san, and Komori-san, plus Mariko) and three long term volunteers are luckily all safe, and also we had just finished Bilateral workcamp with Taiwanese organization the day before of the hard rain. However, we were stuck and isolated in Kasahara area, and Egaoonmori now became evacuation place. Some local families evacuates in Egaonomori since their houses are no longer to live, and some evacuate here since their houses are in danger of mud slip to be crashed.
After the two days of isolation, the way to Kurogi was open in the mountain route by the local people including Miyaozno Fuluo-san. However, we have no choice to cancel all the Sansonjuku projects after this disaster. We still do not know what will happen, and nothing is secure yet. Even though we are in terrible situation, people are trying to recover from this disaster. The big problem that the local people are facing now, is that they have less bright future for their farming in Kasahara. Since the main road is almost impossible to recover, it takes about 1 hour to get to Kurogi in narrow mountain road. Some families are leaving the village and may give up their faming in this area. This accelerates the village to be empty in future, which leads the SATOYAMA environment ends in Kasahara. That is something we concern and do not want to make it true.
The volunteer program is now arranged in Kasahara area, but we have to solve some problems before that. Hopefully to have workcamp style voluntary work to help local people. We will start whatever we can do, and want to recover our lovely Kasahara. Please check facebook for frequent update from Kota's page.
Written by Mariko, Sansonjuku staff