[sundan]

"News update from Uragara via Koi-Breeders.jp" from Koi chat

Hi People

Just looked on koi-beeders.jp and theres a report from Tamikazu Kobayashi regarding Uragara etc.

QUOTE

I drove to Ojiya again, to see how Tsuyoshi (TORAZO) is doing. Yesterday, I was as last able to get
in contact with him. If the rescue mission at Myoken landslide site is completed, the traffic ristriction
to Uragara area will be released and we can drive into the area. I parked my car in the parking lot of
a shopping mall, and waited for him to call. Soon I got a call from Tsuyoshi, he said, "Well, it looks like
the rescue thing would take a lot longer today, but since you are here, why don't you come and see."

I drove to Seiji Hiroi's house and parked my car there, that was as close as I could go. Seiji Hiroi and
Isa (Hajime Isa) had electricity back. There were a few dozens of cars and rescue vehicles, parked
alongside the road. Press people were doing their reports from the scene of rescue mission at the
landslide cliff. I met Tsuyoshi there and walked for a minute to Ojiya Nishikigoi Center (Jirosuke). He
had his family car parked there. There I met Tsuyoshi's wife and his first daughter. I was glad to see
them. They seem to be doing quite well. He said that their younger daughters were at Tsuyoshi's brother's
place. They are also doing OK.

Tsuyoshi and I took three cans of gasoline (20 liters each) on a push cart and walked across a temporary
path over a rail road track and into Uragara area. He had a light weight truck parked right there. We loaded
the gasoline cans on the truck and drove to Tsuyoshi's farm. There was a sight of a total destruction.
Damage was really bad between a little past Isa (Maruyo) and Kosugi. This road is called Nishikigoi Ginza,
the main street of Nishikigoi in Ojiya. If you drive from Nagaoka, you take a left turn at Myoken, where you
see the statue of Nishikigoi, drive through a little tunnel under the rail road track, take left and go driving
into the heart of the Koi-Homeland. You drive heading east. The river there runs from the east to west.

At Kosugi and the house next to him (on west side), what I saw was so unusual that I doubted my eyes.
At first it looked like that kosugi's greenhouse by the river and the house next to it fell into the river.
But looking from the road, they were in their right position. Here is what it really was. The mountain
over the river cracked open and fell into the river and stopped the river, so the river had no place to run
and went through the basement of the house next to kosugi's greenhouse. The water and dirt mark on the
walls indicated that the water went up to 2 feet above the ground level, and once covered the road. There
were wrecked cars here and there, they looked like they had been washed away and carried by water for
10-20 meters. Those cars also had dirt marked up to 18-20 inches high. I didn't dare walk into the green-
house to find out what happened there. Yhat's not my concern, I mean I don't want to go telling people
about what happened to so and so... no not unless I want to be responsible for getting help for that situation.
I have heard a lot of things about what goes on for other breeders from my friends, but I don't intend to
put information that someone passed on to me. Telling rumors about someone else here on my web isn't
going to help anything. Besides, situations could change in a day or two as the way it is now. Truth is, some
breeders lost some fish, and there are fish left. Some people are trying their best to keep what's left. When
this situation setteles down and they have things under control, they'll let you know.

I can only tell what I have seen with my own eyes. Here's what I found out about TORAZO.

All Nisai, Sansai and up were in good swimming conditons in the greenhouse between Tsuyoshi's house
and his Tosai house. He has an electric generator running and with the electricity, air pumps and filters
were going (with handy pumps). In the Tosai house, one 20 ton tank was empty (no fish, no water). There
were 5 other tanks with water up to full level. In three of them, I saw fish swimming. Air pumps and filters
were going with handy pumps in those three tanks. Other two had no air or filter pumps going, didn't look
like fish in there.... (When situations settle down and he has all things under control, he'll let us know.)

In the new greenhouse across the river from Miyaishi, he didn't lose any fish. There was another generator
running to keep an air compressor and filters going (with handy pumps). All the fish there seemed to be in the
same good conditon as I saw them on last Saturday.

The river running behind TORAZO was close to ground level, the water surface was 30 cm below. It usually
is 3 meters below. It looked like that his office was very close to being flooded. There was a watermark about
1 square meter from the back sliding doors. Things still could be bad if they don't clear the river, and we have
another hard rain for a couple of days.....

I understand you have read so far because you are concerned with what goes on with the breeders and their
koi, you have every right to, if you have bought from them and waiting on a shipment, but right now people are
not ready to tell you anything.

Koi kichi friends around the world, please think of a way you can help these people, act now.

UNQUOTE

Pictures from Uragara and the Myoken landslide site

http://www.koi-breeders.jp/05/O3004/ Regards James