How do you begin...

As you know (unless you live under a rock), Japan suffered a crazy big earthquake and crazier tsunami on Friday. After looking at pictures, one ends up putting themselves in question as to how these people move on. I can't help but wonder how I would physically and emotionally navigate the wreckage of what used to be my life. These people didn't have time to pick up family heirlooms or pictures. They didn't have time to pack an few days worth of clothes, food and water. And when they returned, it must have been hard to determine exactly where your house would have possibly stood. Streets were covered with cars, houses, and what would have seemed like an endless amount of debris and trash. I watched one video where a box truck was floating down the road and the back door opened. Boxes of what looked like mail or a delivery of some sort just spilled out. This would have happened all over the stricken areas. The amount of fear felt by these people would be hard to measure and understand. And now they have the task of not only cleaning it up, but also dealing with the growing nuclear problem that has resulted.

And as my title says - how do you begin? How do you begin to understand the complete destruction? How do you begin to sort through your new life? How do you begin to clean this up? Rebuild? When I look at pictures, I think, is there a body somewhere in this frame that someone must find? How long will it be? Will there be a health issue associated with how long it will take to find everyone? When I look at pictures, I think, how do you go about cleaning this type of thing up? Do you sort good material from bad material and try to rebuild using the good? Where do you put contaminated material on such a small island? How do you even get machinery through these areas when there is no distinction between a road and where a house used to be? How do you come up with the resources to rebuild such a large area? When I look at pictures, I think, how are those people coping with such a huge event? How do they stand not knowing where a family member is for days? As you can see, I have many questions.

I watched a program today. It was very informative and interesting. It was the 20/20 aired on Friday afternoon, mere hours after the disaster struck. There are some captivating images and video. It is worth a watch or listen - you can find it here.

I also have been struck by many images over the past few days. I have copied them and included them below. I believe that the saying "a picture is worth 1000 words" is very true after viewing these. These are the images that spurn my questions above. They are heartbreaking, sad, overwhelming, and some are even full of hope. These are all from msnbc.msn.com. I cannot verify the chronological order here, they were just crazy images.

The tsunami, a mere 30 minutes after the earthquake

Here is some of the aftermath:

This is a before and after shot of the same area.

I thought it interesting how it cracked along the road lines.

That boat doesn't seem to belong there.

A completely intact house floating in the ocean.

How do you move that?

This man was floating on his roof and was rescued 10 miles out to sea days after the tsunami hit.

Oh my.

This was the most amazing image to me. That boat is much larger than that building and it somehow got perched on top of it. It is balanced perfectly as to not tip one way or another. It's like that wave was playing a game with humans. What do you do about this?

I have one more thing to share. My good friend Maggie's brother has his family in Japan. Luckily, they were safe and her brother is on his way to get them and bring them back to the US. The family is looking for donations to help them with travel expenses and helping his wife and children get clothes and other basic supplies. If you are interested in donating, let me know and I'll get your their contact info. Maggie's brother had to go about 24 hours without hearing from them.

Keep this country in your prayers, they need it right now!