Ferry bringing commodities arrives at Kita and Minami Daito islands after 18 days

Ferry bringing commodities arrives at Kita and Minami Daito islands after 18 days

At around 11:00am on September 18, at the Miyagi Store in Kita-Daito Village, people line up to buy food and other commodities brought in by ferry.


September 23, 2011 Yoko Ikeda and Junko Uechi, correspondents of Ryukyu Shimpo

In the morning of September 22, the ferry Daito arrived at Kita and Minami Daito for the first time in 18 days, after several sailings had been cancelled because Typhoon No. 15 had lingered in the Okinawa area since September 4. After it arrived, containers were unloaded onto the wharf one after another. On both islands, having run out of grocery supplies, many relieved residents who had been waiting for the arrival of the ferry rushed to stores to purchase fresh food.

Ten people lined up in front of the Yogi Grocery Store in Minami-Daito Village even before it opened its doors. Normally a total of about 100 people come to shop at the store each day, but on this particular day about 50 customers came in just one hour. Noriko Yamashita, the manager of the Minami-Daito Jima store of A Corp JA Okinawa smiled as she said, “The harvest festival is going to be held on September 22 and 23, so it is really good that foodstuffs have arrived in time.”

At the Miyagi Store on Kita Daito Village, dairy products, bread and vegetables sold at a rapid pace. Ayano Miyagi, a 33 year-old woman who has lived on the island for about two years since marrying a local man said, “This is my first time experience of this kind of food shortage, and I’m certainly relieved that it’s over!”

(English Translation by T&CT, Mark Ealey)

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