Steven Chen
The patron of Johor’s Malaysian Red Crescent Society Branch, Raja Zarith Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah through its community service committee handed over a donation of RM102,000 for the Japan tsunami victims to the Consul of Japan in Johor, Yoichiro Nishimura at the Persada convention hall.
The donation will be channeled to the Japan Red Crescent Society to help in reducing the burden of the tsunami victims.
Raja Zarith said that this is part of the effort of Malaysians who are concerned about the disaster-stricken Japanese community.
She said she was shocked to read about the 10 meters high tsunami wave that devastated the city of Sendai.
It was truly a heart breaking event and we hope that this donation will help reduce the hardships faced by the victims, she added.
According to Raja Zarith, in the 2006 major flood that hit Johor, the Japanese community here extended a lot of assistance to us and now the people of Johor want to reciprocating and help the Japanese community who are undergoing trying times.
Many Johor companies and institutions like PBSM, JCorp, Austin Height International School, Tiong Hua Association and Hilltop Private School have all come forward to make contributions.
On 11 March 2011, an earthquake hit off-shore of Japan at 14:46 (local time). The epicentre has a latitude of 38.0N and longitude 142.9E (373km northeast of Tokyo, about 130 km off the eastern coast of Japan) with a depth of 13.5 km and magnitude of 8.8.
Since the earthquake struck, there have been repeated aftershocks with magnitudes of 6.6, every 30 to 60 minutes on the island of Honshu.
According to local news reports, about 300,000 people in the affected areas have been evacuated to safer public facilities.
The tsunami alert is still active, preventing the recovery of several hundred bodies on the shore. However, in many areas, the estimated scale of the tsunami has decreased.
Landslides have been reported in 37 areas. More than 2,500 houses have totally collapsed while a further 2,500 houses are damaged as a result of the earthquake and tsunami.
Ten villages in Iwate prefecture and 1,800 households in Fukushima prefecture have been devastated by the tsunami.
The Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) continues to assess the situation at both national headquarters and branch levels.
A total of 62 National Disaster Response Teams (NDRT), with more than 400 staff members including doctors, nurses and administration support are currently conducting assessments in the affected areas as well as providing first aid, health and possible psychosocial support (PSP). More NDRT teams are on standby for further deployment.
Some assessment teams are having difficulty in accessing some areas, as there is still a red-tsunami-alert for four prefectures which are mostly the worst-hit areas.
The Government has opened many evacuation centres (halls, gyms etc) which are currently housing people.
JRCS are supporting these centres with health, psychological support and relief items. 30,560 blankets have been sent to the affected area for further distribution.
The public can also send their donations to MRC Community Services Johor Bahru’s HSBC bank account no. 211119078101 and fax the bank in slip to 07-2211359 and/or contact 03-42578122 for more information.
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