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“Do you want some food?” a wrinkled woman asks me. I kindly turn down her offer and tell her I am fine. “Are you sure?” she insists “It’s for everybody!”.

This is not an offer of politeness, she has spotted me from across the square, and she genuinely cares.

It’s Wednesday night, I’m sitting on a cold stone in Place de Budapest, Paris. Resto Du Coeur has rolled out their tables and food is being served to a line of around 150 waiting people. Simultaneously this scene is being repeated in several other locations across town, tonight and all other days of the week.

I’ve been on the streets for a couple of days, and have blended into the crowd enough for the wrinkled social worker to take me as someone in need. Most strikingly is indeed the number of “normal looking” people in the line. People looking like they are on their way home from the office – and in fact they might very well be. On the back of increasing rents and cost of everyday items in the shops, there’s a growing number of people that simply cannot make ends meet, and so the soup kitchens take on a new roll of not only providing for the homeless, but reaching out to a much larger and diverse group.

The European middle class is under attack, and having a job is no longer a guarantee for food on the table or a roof over your head. Social and economic challenges are no longer distant subjects in the news. Individuals, families and children are falling over the edge daily, becoming members of the “new-poor” class. It’s a hard definable group, breaking classic descriptions of someone to be standing in line for food or shelter at night.

These images are produced over the course of 8 days in November 2012, during a long series of walks through the streets of Paris. Shooting was done day and night, under and above ground, on the boulevards and in the gutter. The subjects are isolated, captured on the distressed stage of the streets, one fate unaware of the next, one path crossing another. In a maze of entangled journeys each subject is frozen in its own frame.

The series is a preview of a planned project focussed on documenting the current social challenges in Europe, resulting in the rapid growth of the “new-poor” class. Further funding will determine the longer term future of this project.

All images are sold framed and benefits will go directly into the support of my continued humanitarian work. Pictures from the exhibition will be online soon in the Exhibitions section

The series is a preview of a planned project focussed on documenting the current social challenges in Europe, resulting in the rapid growth of the “new-poor” class.

More than 1000 people came by yesterday, and you can still catch the show today January 20 in Øksnehallen in Copenhagen. I’ll be there all day today and would love to see you there.

In mid-October a longer interview, featuring some of my thought processes when I’m shooting, was published on the blog of 500px.com. If you don’t know the site – and have an interest in photography – you definitely owe to yourself to go there and explore. They feature some of the best photography in the world, from so many talented people – and I’m proud to tell some of my story through their blog, recently voted one of the 25 most important blogs in the world by TIME Magazine.

So if you want to come with me behind the lens, read this article: Humanitarian Photographer Kasper Nybo interviewed by 500px

As some might know I’m a great supporter of the Crowdfunding concept, as it made some of my exhibitions last year possible. I’ve already talked about it in previous interviews, and was very happy to do it again for the Danish Actors’ Association. They want to promote the use of crowdfunding for artists to realize their own projects. I couldn’t agree more with this and shared my story and what I believe are good keys to success with crowdfunding. The article is in Danish, but let me know if you have any specific questions, and I’ll answer them the best I can.

You’ll find the article right here
and you can find the full magazine here

Inspiration was a big part of this workshop, and one of my favorite subjects, talking about the importance of developing your visual language is so close to my heart, and always inspiring to me to see people starting to explore this language for themselves. After that, technique becomes a natural tool you’ll want to master to be able to speak your voice, and that approach is so fundamentally different than first falling in love with big cameras and many buttons. We did of course cover a lot of technical ground, and in the end saw the first results of visual stories being made. Great experience – great people!

Kasper Nybo with a few of the workshop students from the Red Cross editorial team.

More to come..

UPDATE: Over the weekend my funding reached 100%, thanks to Booomerang user annriemer. Today the call for help went above and beyond my expectations as the the fantastic guys behind Cheche overfunded the project, to ensure the big prints safe transportation through Europe. Once again I thank you all from the bottom of my heart! More to come…

The image below is just a quick snapshot,  but I’d like to share the story behind it with you. (If you’re here to see strong humanitarian photography and visual storytelling, head to my Portfolio, or scroll down after this post).

This image was shot on assignment in Japan with the people from Fuel Relief. As they headed home after a long day distributing free kerosene for heating and light, this woman came down from a small community in the mountains. She asked if she could have some kerosene for herself, and the community, as many were not home and would return to a house without heat, light or hot water. Together with the team from Fuel Relief, she carried heavy loads of kerosene up the steep road. Afterwards she could not stop thanking the team, again and again she would bow and thank them. The team eventually got in the cars, but had to get out again, as she would continue thanking for their generosity towards her community. In the end she knelt down, laying on the dirty road before them. Her gratitude was extraordinary and deeply moving.

If you’ve been following on Twitter and Facebook these last days, you know that I’ve been busy raising awareness of my Crowdfunding project (aka Booomerang in Denmark). I’ve been invited to make an exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art of Naples, Italy, as part of a fundraising event they are hosting in aid of post-disaster rebuilding of Japan. I’m happy and honored to make this happen, as I know the need is great. However, producing prints in a size and quality worthy of the museum and its audience, comes with a decent price tag. In just two days, 92% of the funding needed has been secured! This is astonishing – and I’m now the one being overwhelmed and greatly thankful for the support and trust invested in me. I have full confidence the last 8% will come, and I will move ahead with the project. My heart, and deepest gratitude goes out to my great friends and supporters at Universal Telecom.

The images produced for the Italy exhibition, will also be used in an upcoming exhibition in Øksnehallen in Copenhagen in January 2012. This exhibition will be focused on humanitarian photography and visual storytelling as the strongest platform to increased awareness and funding, for humanitarian and social organizations.

Looking forward to share more with you as the project progress.

In the gym hall, Ryoko is racing across the floor. She sees nothing, except the springboard in front of her. 1, 2, 3, her feet are synced in perfect rhythm, setting off and being catapulted into the air. She’s weightlessly flying, in a long split second. But as she makes a perfect landing on both feet, the ground is giving away under her. Everything is shaking and squeaking. Something is wrong. The tremors become stronger and stronger. Ryoko knows it’s an earthquake. She has experienced it many times before, but never this strong. She can’t get up and run, as it continues to shake.

Kaori, 9, and her sister Ryoko, 12, Ishinomaki, Japan.

The girls around her are screaming and crying. Ryoko tries to crawl to the others, helping to get everyone to sit together and hold on to each other. The ground is rocking under them in what feels like an eternity. And then, finally, it stops. The following silence is deafening, as if they’re all holding their breath thinking “Is it really over?”, without really daring to believe it.

Over the school loudspeakers the girls in the gym are told to get to the meeting place in the school yard with the rest of the school. It’s cold, and Ryoko, only has her training jacket on. She is looking for her younger sister, Kaori, but before they find each other, their grandmother comes running into the schoolyard. When Ryoko sees her, she knows that something is very wrong. Together they find Kaori, and they are ready to hurry home. Before they can leave, the speakers are crackling again. A high pitched voice is screaming that a tsunami is coming. Everyone must hurry into the schoold for safety, as high up as they can get. Panic! The whole school is rushing up to the third floor. Ryoko is scared. Through the window, she sees the city turning into a transient ocean floor.

“The water rushed between all the houses and gardens. The roads disappeared and eventually only rooftops were visible above the water, they looked like strange little islands in a vast ocean. It was like something from a movie,” says Ryoko.

As the water reaches the school, it doesn’t have as much speed anymore, but it continues to rise.

“The three of us, grandmother, Ryoko and myself tried to call mom and dad with our phones, but there was no signal. The network was dead,” Kaori recalls.

The girls press themselves closer to their grandmother. The water has stopped rising, but the entire ground floor is gone, everything is underwater. The day gets darker and darker.

In the evening, snow is falling silently. Ryoko and Kaori still can’t get hold of their parents. They are scared and confused. The water is blocking everything, and the can’t come home. There are no blankets or food at the school, when night falls, they lie in the clothes on the cold floor. Few people are sleeping though, everyone is in shock from what they have seen. Some cry and some are just lying quietly, starring. Some are with their parents, some are alone, and some are missing altogether. Ryoko doesn’t know what have happened to the missing ones.

“The next day was long and strange. We did not really know what had happened. We all just wanted to be with our mum and dad, but we couldn’t get information on where they were,” says Ryoko.

No one can get hold of anyone outside the school. Everyone is waiting, without knowing what they are really waiting for. Outside the water is slowly beginning to pull back.

VBy lunchtime the third day, something finally happens. During the morning, more parents have turned up at school. Kaori and Ryoko are sure that their mom and dad too will soon come. And at lunchtime it happens, mom and dad come. They are finally all together again.

“Mom and Dad told us that our house had been completely destroyed by the water, and that we would have to stay at an evacuation center,” Ryoko and Kaori recalls.

Ryoko is wondering if her best teddy bear, a Capybara, has survived, but they can not get back to the house yet.

Across the city, evacuation centers are opening everywhere. Ryoko and Kaori are living in a public library. There are many other families there and lots of new friends – and books to pass the time. The sisters are both helping to clean and to pass out food for everyone living in the library.

The sisters sitting in their temporary home, by the outer wall of a public library.

On the last day of March, the whole family is returning to the school to celebrate Ryoko’s school completion as she will continue in another school. The celebration should have taken place a few days after the earthquake, but it was not possible because of the water. Now, it has been cleaned and turned into an evacuation center, like their library. But today is celebration, and everyone is enjoying themselves and singing.

Another princess is coming to life, under the pen of Kaori, as she’s passing time in the evacuation center.

Ryoko says goodbye to her teachers, especially the teacher of her favorite subject: social studies. After the party, the girls are allowed to come back to see the remains of their house.

“For the first time in our lives we were allowed to go inside the house with shoes on,” says Ryoko shocked.

“It was the strangest thing I’ve ever tried, and I didn’t like it,” Kaori continues.

Kaori is looking for her Capybara teddybear, but it’s gone. Ryoko is looking for her trumpet. She has played since third grade and is starting in a new band at the new school. She finds it, covered in mud, but it works! She is looking forward to start practicing again.

Playing since 3rd grade Ryoko was thrilled to find her trumpet again, under the mud and rubble inside their house.

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This story concludes the mini-series of eyewitness stories from my coverage of the Japan earthquake and tsunami. For more on the eyewitness series, and to read the previous stories, click here. To support my continued work as an independent humanitarian photographer, please consider donating via PayPal here.

It’s late afternoon and school is about to finish for today. Hiroki’s thoughts escape out the window of the classroom. The rest of the art-class is busy drawing and painting. A ray of sun hits him and warms his body in the midst of a cold winter. He looks forward to going home. Suddenly everything starts to shake. At first just a little, but then harder and harder. The tables are dancing, and the windows are rattling, pictures are falling down from the walls. Hiroki is torn out of his daydreaming; an earthquake is hitting! The building is cracking and everybody is screaming. It’s the biggest earthquake Hiroki and his classmates have ever experienced, and it goes on and on. The earth is shaking so much, nobody is able to move. Under his desk Hiroki is hanging on to the leg of the desk.

Twins Hiroki and Miho, 10 years old. Fifth graders in Ishinomaki, Japan

When at last it’s quiet, the whole class runs to the teacher. Together they get down the main stairs and out into the school yard. Hiroki calls for his sister Miho. They are twins but are not in the same class. There is snow in the air, and Hiroki is cold while he is calling and looking for Miho. All the children press close together to keep warm, many of them left their jackets behind in the rush to get out.

“Hiroki!” a girl suddenly shouts. It’s Miho she is ok! They hurry to Hiroki’s teacher and keep close together while the school is being emptied. Slowly things calm down while the names of everybody are called out. But suddenly a helicopter turns up from behind the roof of the school. The engine is roaring through the wind, from a big megaphone sounds a message nobody has expected:

“Tsunami on its way, Tsunami on its way. Get away from the ground! Seek upwards!”

Afraid and confused everybody rushes back into the school again, up the stairs all the way to the roof. As the door is being unlocked everybody rushes out on the large flat roof, four stories up. Hiroki and Miho hurry to the edge to see what is happening. Everything looks normal, only the sky is alarmingly dark. But as Miho and Hiroki are standing close together they see something that makes them silent. They are scared and cannot believe their own eyes.

“Suddenly there was something that came right towards us. It looked like a big black snake which rolled itself through the whole town,” Hiroki tells and continues, “but it was black water which filled the streets and ran over the houses. I saw a lot of cars floating around just like the small plastic cars I have at home in my room.”

Miho interrupts, ”The water came closer and closer, down from the harbor and from the river behind the school. It was squeezed down the small road between the school and the houses. When I saw the water coming rushing into the school yard, just where we stood a few minutes earlier, I got scared.”

Facing the ocean Hiroki and Miho watched the water coming straight at them, rushing up the small street leading into the schoolyard where they stood minutes earlier.

Furniture, cars, roofs and all kind of trash from people’s homes are floating in the water. It rises and rises until the whole ground floor of the school disappears under the black water. Hiroki and Miho are totally isolated. No telephones are working and they don’t know where their mother, father or big brother are.

The teachers are gathering everybody. They have to sleep at the school tonight. They go inside and spread out in a couple of classrooms at the top floor. There are no blankets and the heating doesn’t work now. It quickly goes cold when the sun disappears. There is no food, and the toilets don’t work.

“I missed my mother but didn’t know where she was or if she was ok. It was the longest night ever,” says Miho.

The next morning is dark and grey. It’s raining and Hiroki and Miho are caught at the school as on a desert island in the middle of the ocean. There is still no food and Hiroki is hungry. Not until the following day supplies finally arrive. Bananas, fruits and rice cakes. Never before did anything taste this good. But even better than food is when their big brother turns up. The water has started drawing back, and he has fought his way through manholes and rubble to find Hiroki and Miho. Among all the super heroes Hiroki knows his big brother has just become the strongest and toughest of them all. Together they send a message to their parents that everybody is ok.

Shortly after, Hiroki and Miho’s mum and dad reach the school which during the following days is transformed into an evacuation center. During the next three weeks the family stays at a few square meters among many other families. They have none of their own belongings and only the clothes that are distributed. But they are together, all of them.

Miho and Hiroki leaving the evacuation center. Finally going home!

After a month Hiroki and Miho return to their house for the first time. Just as at the school the whole ground floor has been covered by the water and everything has been destroyed. Miho is happy to be back.

“At the center of evacuation I was sick and threw up several times. At home I relax and feel good even if nothing is like before.”

Miho overlooking her neighbourhood and the remains of the houses. A few weeks ago, these were the streets and gardens where she would be playing with her friends. Now she’s wondering when those times will return.

She helps her father and grandfather cleaning up and digging mud out of the living room. Hiroki is more cautious. He can’t stop thinking about the water that rolled over the town and prefers to stay at the school.

“I’m afraid that the water will return. At the school I know nothing will happen.”

Miho, at the other hand, is more concerned that their washing machine is broken.

Most of the mud has been scraped out of the living room now. The dark line bordering the ceiling, serves as a reminder of how high the water stood.

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Like this story? Read more. This story is the continuation of my mini-series of eyewitness stories from the Japan earthquake and tsunami. For more on the eyewitness series, and to read the first two stories, click here. To support my continued work as an independent humanitarian photographer, please consider donating via PayPal here.

As the worlds third largest economy Japan has a significant capacity to manage and respond to emergencies. Moreover, in the aftermath of the disaster, working alongside officials agencies, the Japanese people responded actively to their countrymen in need, not only opening up their houses for affected people, but also mobilizing an army of volunteers. In April, more than 11,000 people from all over the country were actively clearing and cleaning the streets and houses in the affected areas. Street by street, house by house, mud and debris were meticulously scraped away and carried to the streets, where trucks in never ending lines would transport everything to temporary landfills outside towns. An estimated 125,000 buildings were damaged or completely destroyed and the region was covered with an estimated 25 million tons of rubble.

As the city of Ishinomaki is cleared of rubble, a new challenge arises in what to do with the remains. Numerous landfills have opened up on government owned landed, on the outskirts of Ishinomaki. This elderly lady is desperate to get her voice heard in the city council, as her house is becoming uninhabitable with the landfill growing daily and the smell being indescribable.

The landfill is endless, but meticulously sorted in different types of trash.

More than 50 teams of volunteers take the streets of this one town everyday, clearing rubble, scraping out mud. This team consisted mostly of university students from Tokyo.

A volunteer has found wedding photos in the mud, he carefully brushes them off and puts them aside. Some of the findings from the streets are taken to evacuation centers, for the chance to reunite survivors with memories of loved ones.

In the 30 minutes that passed between the ground stopped moving, and the first tsunami waves hit the coast, the diver reached land and fled for higher ground. Beneath him his life as a fisherman was swept away, along with his village. As the waves spread, hitting further and further down the coast, the story of destruction repeated itself in one coastal city after another, making this the worst natural disaster in the history of Japan.

As the water withdrew, and in the following months, the japanese people found themselves left behind with more than 15,000 confirmed deaths and almost 8,000  missing. 300,000 people were left with no home and evacuation centers opened in all the affected areas. As of mid May more than 115,000 were still living in these centers, as refugees in their own country, awaiting temporary housing. Suicide rates were soaring, as people lost hope in getting their lives back on track.

Japan, a country resting on four tectonic plates, is no foreign land to earthquakes and tsunamis. Shakings of the ground is an almost daily event and everybody is educated from childhood in how to handle these situations. Had it only been for the quake, not much damage would have occurred. However, no risk calculation had taken into account a mass of water on this scale.

Ranging in height from a few meters up to 38 meters, the tsunami wave was unstoppable in its deadly path. Seawalls were washed away like plastic toys on a summer beach. Houses were lifted, in a clean cut from their foundation, and carried away by the water. Entire towns were wiped away, leaving nothing behind, as building regulations were based on smaller tsunami heights, leaving many people to believe they were safe.

Ishinomaki Bay, looking south over the sea. The face of the ocean is calm, as if today was no different than yesterday. Behind, the city of Ishinomaki is recovering from the impact with the tsunami waves that rushed passed here, directly towards the city center.

Oshika peninsula, a village is completely wiped out as the tsunami wave was forced into the narrow bay, making the wave higher. This is one out of many villages like it along the coast of the peninsula.

Ishinomaki. Officials from Japan Air Self Defense forces overlooking the towncenter. The damage is very localized, varying within a few hundred meters from complete destruction, over extensive water damage to no damage at all.

A long stretch of flat land, just on the coastline is left with few houses standing and completely covered in rubble.

A man biking through the rubble. Many still return to their neighborhoods searching for belongings, and memories of their loved ones, lost in the water.

A classroom converted into temporary housing for several families, with no privacy or timeframe for when they will have a home again.

Police forces from all over the country are searching the rubble  for bodies, in an increasing smell of decay.

A soldier is passing by a damaged house, its first floor resting on other rubble, a doorframe and two wooden beams.

Ishinomaki Paper Mill, a huge paper factory and employer to 822 people, now in complete closedown as the factory itself and surrounding areas were shattered by the tsunami wave. Cargo trains and containers have been tumbled around as weightless objects. 2 people lost their lives in the factory when the tsunami hit, and 3 remain unaccounted for.

The village of Hashiura, 600 meters inland, behind big protective dikes, the water still flooded this village with about 1 meter of water.

A cemetery in Ishinomaki, Japan, April 2011. Cars have been stopped by the foot of a mountain, leaving them spread among the graves as the water receded.

A tower of a temple remains, as an island in a massive sea of rubble.

A community pool surrounded by a thick layer of mud and flooded with black water, cars and rubble.

A Statue Of Liberty copy stretches her torch towards a dark sky, she remains as one of the few standing structures on this island in the river that cuts through Ishinomaki.

To explore more stories from the Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster, please check the Japan disaster category

“Every time I think about this story it leaves me speechless. It’s almost unreal how our human paths can cross each other in ways that seem impossible, but still as if they were meant to be.

I have a neighbor and dear friend who was the ex-wife of a monk, and despite their separation, they had remained in very good terms and close contact. Her ex-husband lived in his temple in another city and she was here, next to my house.

After the earthquake and tsunami, my neighbor had been evacuated to safety. As the days passed by and she still had no news of her former husband, she got worried, but was helplessly unable to go to the city of the temple and where he used to live.

At the same time, in another part of Japan, far south of the disaster area, somebody else was worried about the monk. A friend and fellow monk had had no signs of life from the north for a period longer than he liked. To learn the fate of his friend, he set out on foot and walked for several days to get to the city of the monk. The temple is located in one of the worst hit areas of the disaster. The monk was shocked as he looked over the remains of the city. From eyewitness stories he was able to put together the pieces of a terrible puzzle.

After the big earthquake the ex-husband had opened the doors of his temple for people to evacuate from the rising water. But as the water kept rising the temple eventually had to be evacuated as well. When the water came in higher and higher the monk helped people out towards higher ground. With everybody out, the monk returned one last time to his temple. Another wave hit and the monk was washed away in the black, muddy water, and disappeared.

Now the monk that came by foot looking for his friend, happens to be an old friend of mine, he knows that I live in the same city as the ex-wife. When he returned to his home he wrote me a letter explaining the whole story, asking me to find the ex-wife and bring the letter to her. What he didn’t know though, was that the wife lives just next door to me.

As I read the letter I started shaking and felt the tears running down my face. I knew I had to bring my neighbor terrible news. Minutes later, I felt utterly helpless as I watched her read the letter, breaking down in tears on the floor.”

Many schools were used as evacuation centers. Today, the children are running up and down the stairs, getting books, tables and tools back in the classrooms, transforming the building from an evacuation center back to being a school again.

Extra attention is given to the first graders, ensuring everything is as normal as it can be fulfilling the expectations and excitement for the first day of school.

With more than 20,000 people dead or missing, not all classes are full. Many students are faced with empty seats and friends that are no longer there.

In spite of everything that has happened over the last month and half, lives turned upside down and much of the world around the children having collapsed, the joy and happiness to move on and to be together again holds a promise of a much brighter future.

In a pile of orphaned photos and notes found in the mud and debris, a newlywed couple stares into a future turned upside down. Their frame and glass still covered in dry mud from a disaster hitting like a lightning from the sky.

This was the case during my time in Japan, covering the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. A number of people I spoke to had stories that left me absolutely speechless, and I knew I wanted to put them together to this miniseries of eyewitness stories.

These are stories by everyday Japanese people, old and young, seeing the world around them being literally washed away, and a regular Friday afternoon turning into a fight for their lives.

Some requested anonymity, and through that also inspired the name for this series.
These are the stories you will see as you look closely “In Our Eyes”.

“I was on the highway when the earthquake hit. It was so strong that I decided to turn back towards my home. I had the radio on, and reports of the tsunami waves started coming in. Since they were only talking about cities higher north, I assumed everything would be safe.

Thinking back now, retracing my route – I was heading straight into the tsunami.

On my right hand side I saw the wave of black water rushing towards me, and before I could act, the water completely surrounded my car, lifting it from the ground. I was floating in a black sea of mud and debris. Somehow my engine kept going, so I was able to open the windows, and drag myself up on the roof of the car. The scenes that met me were surreal. I saw people trapped by the rising waters in their houses, climbing from the second floor windows, unto the roofs. In the water, many others were floating around like me helplessly trapped on the roofs of their cars.

A small boat floated by, close enough for me to jump in the dark water and swim to what seemed a safer option than my car. Five people were already in the boat, and we floated along in silence, as the world around was swept away. People would climb up on telephone poles, but whenever a wave came and engulfed the poles, everyone would be washed away and disappear. As we saw this happen again and again I could not speak, I was completely numb.

A heartbreaking scream shook me back to reality. A small child was floating in the water close to the boat and we managed to rescue her. I held her close, in the freezing cold.

For a long time we floated around, cast about by the waves. As we came closer to a bridge we got caught by a pillar and some driftwood. A man standing on the pillar threw us a rope and we all managed to get out of the boat. The pillar was the only nearby spot above water.

As it got darker, a big boat floated by and got stuck. In our hunt for higher ground we got up on the boat, hoping to use it to get out of the water and unto shore. It was getting too dark to move on, but also too cold to stay still with the small girl. We desperately needed to get to shore and find shelter for her. Above us helicopters were crisscrossing the sky, but no one saw us. No help was coming.

What happened next is a series of events that I cannot explain, as I think back.

In what had now turned into a black night, with snow in the air, we managed to use the stranded boat to reach close to the shore and get out of the water. On land we searched for anything and anybody that could help us, but no one was there. We found an abandoned truck, and got the headlights switched on, hoping somebody would see it. In the back there were blankets and a bottle of water. I knew I had found the shelter we needed for the girl. I brought the water back to the rest of our group waiting on the boat, and we carried the girl to safety in the truck. From curtains and blankets in the back I did the best I could to replace our soaking wet clothes and keep us warm.

As morning came I returned to the boat, counting nine people now. The water had receded from the highest points and we decided to move on. The day flashed by us in our effort to find shelter and help. After a night in what was not yet an organized evacuation center, we finally found local officials telling them our location and situation. A rescue team was sent out immediately.”