Community Corner

Back from Japan, County Administrator Urges Locals To Give

County Administrator Susan Muranishi was in Japan during last week's devastating earthquake. Now, she is encouraging locals to donate to the county's disaster relief fund.

At first, Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi thought the tires on her tour bus had burst. 

Muranishi was shuttling between meetings in central Tokyo Friday evening with a delegation of Japanese-American leaders, at the tail end of a week-long trip that included meet-and-greets with local businesses and elected officials.

It was after 5 p.m. on Friday, March 11 when he bus pulled into the hotel parking lot where the next round of meetings was to take place. That's when the earthquake hit.  

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 "The bus started rocking and rolling," Muranishi said. "It was like a roller caster ride for about 2 minutes." 

The United States Geologicial Survey recently upgraded the earthquake that struck off northern Japan from an 8.9 to a 9.0, making it among the strongest in recorded history. Yet, contrasting scenes of devestation wrought by the tsunami in the north have been tales an images of life proceeding almost normally in Tokyo the wake of the temblor and its dozens of aftershocks. 

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"After that initail shaking stopped, we were escorted into the building and told our meeting would proceed, because it was on the first floor," Muranishi said. 

Just as the meeting was about to get under way, a strong aftershock rattled the hotel. The administrator described watching cranes on nearby highrises sway through the hotel's plate glass windows. 

For Muranishi, who remebers running down the stairs from the fifth floor of the Alameda County Office in Oakland after the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the experience was unique.  

"The shaking subsided and we went back into our meeting," she said. "It was very orderly and calm. People were crossing with the streetlights." 

Only later did she and others become aware of the tsunami in Northern Japan. Now back in Oakland, she's urging locals to donate.  

"Our resolve now is to really work with the relief effort in the U.S.," Muranishi said. 

In response, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to reactivate the Alameda County Disaster Relief Fund.

First formed in response to 9/11, the fund allows the county 9,000 employees to donate their vacation time, in addition to cash, to the victims of major disasters that have included the 2004 tsunami and the 2010 quake in Haiti. 

Officials stressed that anyone can donate to the fund. Half of the proceeds from the upcoming Women's Hall of Fame will go toward the relief effort. 

One hundred percent of donations will be directed to citizen relief and rebuilding efforts through the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC) and the U.S. - Japan Council, the county said in a press release. 

Cash donations may be contributed via personal check payable to the Alameda County DisasterRelief Fund, c/o the Auditor-Controller Agency, 1221 Oak Street, Room 238, Oakland CA 94612.


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