MedLIS

Matt Ketchum stayed in Miyako to help clean up after the tsunami. (Photo by Pittsburgh Tribune Review) He stayed with his close friend Seiji Shimoyama and his family, who housed and fed 10 young men, now houseless, but not homeless as long as Mrs. Shimoyama had anything to say about it. Everyday, they gathered together for breakfast, then ventured out with shovels, brooms and tools to do what they could in their community.

Miyako and Matt, before and after

A few city scenes after the water subsided.

The water did not stop. This video shows it flowing violently, relentlessly through the small city of Miyako. We had no idea if Matthew had survived the earthquake or the tsunami. There was no power, and no way to communicate. After 4 days, we found him by messaging his Japanese Facebook friends, who contacted each other until he was found, alive and well, still in the Temple shelter. 

Video of Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, when the tsunami following the earthquake of March 11, 2011 hit. My son, Matthew Ketchum, was living on the other side of the main highway where the black water came over the wall… he left a message on Facebook: “Earthquake!” before leaving with his landlords, the Kandos, to climb up a hill to safety in a Temple. Their homes were destroyed. My husband and I had visited just a few months before, at Christmas, and had walked that bridge, those streets, and admired the sturdy breakwall.