Helping Hands

Kadena, Nakagami District, Okinawa, Japan
July 28th
1:00 PM

All the groups left the base almost at the same time. The largest group was the JSDF rescue unit, which had a large number of troops and vehicles because they had to transport a lot of supplies as the situation to the south was much more difficult. There was also another Marine Corps airbase, but it had been badly damaged and its runway was disabled for the moment, right now they are focusing on taking care of people, repairing a road to the Kadena airbase to coordinate the shipment of supplies, in charge of repairing things and as soon as possible. Also, a group of them is accompanying me to repair the Uruma power plant. The III Marine Expeditionary Force, our objective is to establish a continuous power supply to the Ryukyus hospital in less than 35 hours. A Reconnaissance team was sent north to investigate the mountains to see if there is any risk of a collapse of the blankets over the nearby villages. Finally,  the Carrier Strike Group 5 was already arriving at the island, their ships could be seen in the distance.

According to my daughters, the Uruma power plant, despite the damage suffered, is in the best condition according to the reconnaissance reports, so it is the fastest to repair. My team is traveling to the site with a lot of equipment to try to make it work, but the problem is that although on the map it is a nearby location, the road is simply full of debris, so we are taking longer than I would like. The city received devastating damage, it was not different from a war zone, everywhere there were destroyed buildings, people sifting through the rubble, and wounded people. On the way a mother jumped in front of the vehicle to ask us to rescue her son trapped in what was left of her house. We all had to stop for a few minutes to get him out, the boy was still alive but he was in very bad shape, I had to contact for a helicopter to take him to the hospital as soon as possible, there was none available,  I had to ask Kasumi, that was flying nearby, to come here and take the boy only, the mother had to stay behind and walk to Kadena because there was no other way. Even so, she thanked us for the gesture.

Even so we were not the only ones out there, a lot of rescuers, police, firemen, and even common people were helping with everything they could. Even we had to receive help from them because at a certain point of our trip a real problem appeared. The only road we could still use was also damaged. A huge hole was in the ground and our vehicles simply could not get through, not even our JLTVs could get through, let alone our trucks with all the equipment.

Since time was the coins whe are playing with, we had to act fast, and although the people gathered to help us fill the hole with dirt as quickly as possible, it would still take hours to finish. I had to take the decision to divide our team in two: one would stay here to finish repairing the road so that our vehicles could continue, while the other would go ahead to see what state the plant was in and get ahead of the work with what was at hand. Since Momo would go to the power plant as soon as possible, I would also accompany her, and the second in command would be in charge of the group that would repair the street. One of the people was kind enough to lend us two of their buses that were still working for us to continue our trip. I promised him that I would send someone to return them later

We continued our way until we finally arrived at the power plant, which was actually in pretty good condition, as it was right next to the sea, it seems that due to its position the Tsunami was not so powerful in this sector of the island. But it was still damaged, and personnel was working on the site to try to get it up and running as soon as possible. What a scare they got when they saw soldiers getting off the buses and crowding around the outskirts to get inside. Due to my appearance as usual people would not pay attention to me, so I had to ask another soldier to pretend to be the leader and talk to the plant supervisor to tell him that I had come to help with the repairs, although a little hesitant at first he agreed right away when we mentioned that we use the plant to power the Hospital, we immediately got down to work.

Momo quickly checked the outside of the place to see how it was working, and then asked several of the plant's engineers to show her the most serious damage on a series of blueprints. I couldn't understand much of what they were saying, as they spoke very much like Kasumi and Charlotte when they were doing computer stuff, but even faster. After a heated argument that almost ended in blows, the angel finally had what she needed to get to work.

"Very good Honey"
"What do you need to be done?"

"This power plant is based on thermal energy"
"So damage to critical infrastructure should be priority"
"And along with that the boilers should also be ....."

"Excuse me, I'm sorry but Marines are known for eating crayons and I'm no too much different."
"Explain more simply please"

"Okay"
"This power plant works similarly to a nuclear reactor"
"That' s why ....."

"A nuclear reactor, oh that's nice..."
"Can it be simpler"
"In Unga Bunga language please"

"Agh, okay"
"This building is a huge bonfire"
"A lot of wood is thrown in bonfire, bonfire is very hot"
"Hot enough to turn water into air, very powerful hot air"
"Hot air so powerful that it moves big heavy fan"
"Large, heavy fan creates lightning when it moves"
"Lightning traveling by long metal snake to a place with injured people"
"Injured people start to feel well "
"Hot air cools down after a while and turns into water again"
"Repeat process until there is no more wood to burn"

"See, it wasn't that hard"

"We are lucky that this place uses biomass as fuel"
"So throwing anything into the boiler will work"
"We can collect debris and throw it into the boiler to make it work"
"But the problem is that the pipes are routed in many places and the warehouse doesn't have enough materials to repair them all"
"We need the second group to arrive"
"So in the meantime, we will try to move the work forward as best we can"

"Okay, it can be done"
"Mark the most important pipelines on this map"
"The minimum for the site to work"
"I'll send people to check each of them"
"You engineers, take about 4 soldiers each."
"Go to where the damage is located and try to repair what you can with what you have"
"Don't waste time, if you see that you will last too long in one group move to the next one"
"When the second group arrives we can go back to the trouble spots."
"We only have about 29 hours left to make this place walking again"
"Move on!"

Everyone immediately went to work trying to repair the place as fast as they could. The angel was in charge of fixing the boiler because the material inlet had been destroyed and a new one had to be made, as well as the generator because the earthquake had damaged its internal system. This last one was a really difficult task, as we needed almost 20 people in the end. It was already late at night when the second group finally entered the installation with the materials, the pace of work did not slow down at all.

As if that wasn't enough, a group of people, seeing soldiers in the power plant, came to ask for help to rescue people, receive food and spend the night. We didn't have much to begin with but we had to deliver the food anyway, after all, we were in good condition and could ask for air supplies later, these people had been without food for a long time and this was their only option. Although I did sneak a package for Momo since she was the one who was working the hardest she deserved to at least eat a little. During the night more of my soldiers had to leave the power plant to help search for missing people. At one point there were more soldiers out searching than repairing. The civilians in our care hogged all of our tents, but that no matter anyway, none of us could sleep tonight because we were working on fixing the plant as soon as possible. Around midnight a helicopter arrived to take away injured people and bring us some more materials to repair the building.

The panic came when in the early morning a lady arrived asking for help, a school had been cut off and they had to be alone for two whole days. But a section of the building had recently collapsed and trapped several children. Most of us stopped what we were doing and ran to help, only a couple of engineers, about 10 soldiers, and Momo were left behind. Even quite a few of the caretakers volunteered. We spent a good part of the early morning removing rocks and looking for the lost children. I even ended up removing rocks as well. Luckily it was not a very difficult situation, the school was small and made of light materials, none of the children had died by miracle, although they were injured and we had to call for a helicopter to transport them. The surrounding people applauded us for our efforts, but it was still not enough, we had to get back to work immediately on our original mission.

When the sun came up again the sound of the clock was getting heavier, as the deadline was approaching. I was already tired from moving things around all day and night, but we had to keep going, it was a job that had to be done no matter what the cost. A rescue team arrived at our site to continue the rescue work and help with the repairs as well.

A real race against the time took place verifying that all the components were in good condition before starting and testing the boiler. Men and women were frantically running around looking for any sign of trouble because if by mistake we caused major damage all our efforts would have been for nothing. Momo was also like crazy coordinating all the groups trying to keep in her mind a diagram of everything that was happening and what places to pay more attention to. In the end around 10:00 am, our efforts were rewarded when the boiler came online and started producing power without problems. On the radio, the JSDF celebrated the return of power to the hospital and sent their congratulations to our group for making it possible.

We were all completely exhausted and just tried to get some rest wherever we could. Since the priority was again the civilians, we had to sleep wherever there was a space. The fortunes were able to keep their backpacks and use them as pillows, others could only lie on the ground. Momo was also very exhausted and wanted to sleep, since she was the one who had to work the hardest I gave her my commander's coat to use as a blanket, and since I was the softest of the two I laid down for her to use my tail as a pillow. We both slept together for a couple of hours.