That will match the height of an adjacent highway and other higher ground. Permanent housing has been found for nearly half of the evacuees, and residents have been allowed to return to some of the areas surrounding the Fukushima plant.Yet, in many respects, the recovery is just beginning. Altogether, 813 residents died and 421 remain missing. Japanese emergency crews work to free a body as it sits pinned among concrete sea barriers Monday, March 14, 2011, in Toyoma, Japan.

Just as important, he said, is the emotional recovery for Otsuchi’s surviving residents.“This town was built over hundreds and hundreds of years, but in ... just 10 or 15 minutes it was completely destroyed," Hirano said. March 11 marks seven years since the magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake struck off the north-east coast of Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami.

25  The earthquake only added to the country's economic challenges. Immediately following the disaster, Direct Relief and the Japanese American Citizen’s League (JACL) established the Japan Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund, committing 100 percent of all contributions to be used exclusively to help people in Japan in the most productive, efficient manner possible. Haga’s home was destroyed in the tsunami, but he, his wife and many neighbors evacuated to higher land before the wall of water struck.Hirano said strengthening evacuation procedures is a big part of the recovery plan. Lastly, Japan's economy had just started to recover from 20 years of deflation and recession. Fire crews, rescue teams, and volunteers are now digging through the wreckage left by the tsunami, as evacuation efforts continue around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and engineers work to regain control of the failing reactors.We want to hear what you think about this article.The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, wildfire damage in Oregon, flooding in Florida from Hurricane Sally, continued protests in Belarus, smoky skies over Seattle, and much more,Images from the first 17 stages of this year’s Tour de France cycling race,Images of the difficult personal journey of a father and daughter, in the months after the loss of their wife and mother due to COVID-19,Images of the damage from the past few days, seen in the cities of Molalla, Talent, Detroit, Ashland, Estacada, and more.TheAtlantic.com Copyright (c) 2020 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. In the town of Otsuchi in Iwate prefecture, 12,000 out of a population of 15,000 have disappeared following Friday\'s massive earthquake and tsunami.A technician of the SERTIT, Regional Service of Image Treatment and Remote Sensing, works on satellite images of the region of Matsushima in Japan, in his office in Illkirch Graffenstaden near Strasbourg, March 14, 2011.In this photo taken Sunday, March 13, 2011, train rails bent by a powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami get stuck by a bridge in Otsuchicho town, northern Japan.An injured child sleeps at a Japanese Red Cross hospital after being evacuated from the area hit by tsunami in Ishinomaki March 13, 2011.A man comforts a woman as she cries in front of her damaged home in the town of Watari in Miyagi prefecture on March 14, 2011.Rescue workers move the body of a patient through the halls of a hospital in Minamisanriku town on March 14, 2011, days after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.A destroyed landscape is pictured in Otsuchi village, Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan on March 14, 2011.Evacuees hug each other as they confirm each other\'s safety at a makeshift shelter in Otsuchicho town, northern Japan, Monday, March 14, 2011.Japanese refugees rest inside a school gymnasium where hundreds took shelter in Sendai, northeastern Japan, on Monday, March 14, 2011 following Friday\'s massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami.Japanese emergency crews work to free a body as it sits pinned among concrete sea barriers Monday, March 14, 2011, in Toyoma, Japan.Debris litters Onagawa town in Miyagi prefecture at dawn on March 14, 2011 following the tsunami and earthquake of March 11.A woman takes a picture of a list of names of survivors who are in shelters at the Natori City Hall in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture on March 14, 2011.A vessel sits on the rubble in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan, Sunday, March 13, 2011.An aerial view of a line of people waiting for water on school grounds after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan March 13, 2011.A man walks by Japanese word meaning "food" drawn over fading sign of SOS marked on the ground in Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture on March 13, 2011.A rescue official walks through Minamisanriku town on March 14, 2011, days after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.A hand of a victim is seen in the debris in Saito village, Miyagi Prefecture, Monday, March 14, 2011 after Japan\'s biggest recorded earthquake slammed into its eastern coast Friday.A Japanese rescue worker walks through a destroyed residential area of tsunami-hit Otsuchi March 14, 2011.A photo hangs from the remains of a house in the seaside town of Toyoma, northern Japan, Monday, March 14, 2011.People hug after finding relatives at an evacuation center near Rikuzentakata, northern Japan on March 14, 2011.A local resident looks on in an area affected by an earthquake and tsunami in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, March 14, 2011.A mother tries to talk to her daughter who has been isolated for signs of radiation after evacuating from the vicinity of Fukushima\'s nuclear plants, at a makeshift facility to screen, cleanse and isolate people with high radiation levels in Nihonmatsu, northern Japan, March 14, 2011.A woman sits amidst wreckage caused by Friday\'s massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami, in Natori, northern Japan Sunday, March 13, 2011.Photos of the Week: Tinside Lido, Log Climber, Dragon Temple,Photos: Oregon Communities Devastated by Wildfires,The True Story of the Married Woman Who Smuggled Her Boyfriend Out of Prison in a Dog Crate,What Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death Means for America,An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters’ Minds About Trump,My New York City Kids Are Getting an Education in Failed Leadership,Coffee Rust Is Going to Ruin Your Morning.

How do you recover from that?