From Mayor of to the Citizens of Matsudo

Expressing our Condolences and Asking Cooperation for the Earthquake Victims

I would like to express my sincere condolences for the people who suffer the Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyo-Oki Earthquake occurred on March 11 which is the worst calamity in the country.

In Matsudo, we have offered 28 shelters and 1,092 people have evacuated and we also offered resting places for “return home evacuees” from Tokyo when the earthquake occurred.  I am really thankful to Matsudo citizens for being calm even if the worries are still there and are still experiencing aftershock.

The situation caused serious damages to the facilities of TEPCO such as the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Stations and it makes power supply and demand very severe and difficult.  Many administrative services have been stopped due to the scheduled power outage and I speculate this causes the citizens a lot of inconveniences． I would like to ask for your understanding.

Matsudo City has started to accept evacuees, since March 15 which is the earliest in the country, from the nearby areas of the epicenter, especially the ones who suffered Fukushima Nuclear Power Station’s incident.  We would like to do our best as much as we can to help these evacuees who suffered severely and finally arrived to Matsudo with much fear. We give them encouragement with the cooperation of city staff of course, and you our citizens.  I appreciate your warm support.

The citizens of the city who are still doing their best to conserve electricity,

are urged to continue in this effort and at the same time, to limit your usage of gasoline and kerosene. The hospitals, water and other life-related channels,as well as the fuel of emergency switches are not abundant. There is also a possibility of shortage of gasoline for ambulance.  Also, I ask all of you not to hoard rice and other basic necessities.  Please do not buy more than what is necessary. Think of the condition of those old people who do not have the means of mobility or transport, and cannot get even the most basic of their necessities.

It is now that we are being tested to think of what each of us can do, and feel in our hearts what we can do for others.  I stand as head of Matsudo City and assure everybody that I will persevere as I possibly can.  For all Matsudo citizens and all those who are victims of the calamity, let us all look at their severe situation and keep them in our thoughts, I implore everybody to give all their energy, and be one as a circle to do everything we can to help, that all of them may recover from this difficult situation.

March 17th, 2011

Matsudo Mayor

Kenji Hongoya