“We knew help would come eventually,” said Osamu Abe, 43, one of the leaders who emerged to organize the 270 survivors. “Until then, we had to rely on each other to survive.”
Severed From the World, Villagers Survive on Tight Bonds and To-Do Lists
By MARTIN FACKLER
HADENYA, Japan — The colossal wave that swept away this tiny fishing hamlet also washed out nearby bridges, phone lines and cellphone service, leaving survivors shivering and dazed and completely cut off at a hilltop community center.
With no time to mourn for their missing loved ones, they were immediately thrust into the struggle to stay alive in the frigid winter cold, amid a hushed, apocalyptic landscape of wrecked homes, crushed vehicles and stranded boats. They had scant food and fuel and no news from the outside world — not even the scope of the devastation.
On Wednesday, after the Japanese military finally reached them for the first time since the tsunami struck 12 days ago...
There's even Others: "Although they were cut off from the rest of Japan, they made contact with five other nearby refugee centers, with another 700 survivors."
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