Japan tsunami and earthquake: Pictures of recovery 3 months later | Mail Online.

Remarkable photos tell their own story.

Update:

But then there’s another side to the story:

90,000 in shelters; most debris still uncleared 3 months on says the Daily Yomiuri this morning. The entire article consists of “buts” (quoted below). And here’s another DY article headline, “Fewer want to return home / Delayed recovery dampens evacuees’ hopes for the future”.

And more upbeat news: “150 police officers and riot squads to attend Tepco shareholders meeting, June 28th”. Bit over the top, isn’t it? I mean, what could possibly go wrong? The Japanese are always so polite and always apologizing for everything, aren’t they?

According to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, a total of 28,280 temporary housing units for survivors had been completed as of Friday in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Chiba, Tochigi and Nagano prefectures. However, only about 40 percent, or 12,028 units, had occupants as of Wednesday, due partly to their inconvenient locations or other unfavorable conditions, the ministry said.

About 52,500 units are expected to be built by mid-August.

The number of evacuees in shelters fell by about 27,000 from a month earlier to 90,109 as of Friday. However, this figure is still considerably higher than the about 50,000 people living in shelters three months after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.

A total of 468,653 people were staying in shelters on March 14.

Electricity has been restored in most areas, but 57,900 households in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are still without running water, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The Environment Ministry estimated the disaster left 23.92 million tons of debris in these three prefectures. As of Friday, about 5.19 million tons–just 22 percent–had been moved to temporary storage spaces.

In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, the city that had the most debris dumped on it by the tsunami, only 7 percent had been cleared, the ministry said.

Many transport networks are still feeling the impact of the March 11 disaster.

The Tohoku Shinkansen line resumed full operations by April 29, but train services remain suspended over a stretch of 344 kilometers on regular lines, mostly in coastal areas.

A 16-kilometer section of the Joban Expressway between the Hirono Interchange and the Joban Tomioka Interchange remains closed due to the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The Japan Red Cross Society and three other organizations had received donations of about 251.4 billion yen as of June 3. About 82.3 billion yen of this had been passed on to Tokyo, Hokkaido and 13 prefectures affected by the disaster in a first round of distribution, but only 37 billion yen had actually reached survivors.

According to the Cabinet Secretariat’s Volunteers Coordination Office, at least 387,900 people had taken part in volunteer activities in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures as of June 5.