BUFFALO, N.Y. — Japan is still recovering from a 7.6 magnitude earthquake on New Year's Day. As of Friday night, nearly one-hundred people are confirmed dead and more than 200 people are still missing.
A Western New York native living in Japan is helping to raise money for the survivors.
"It's going to take a while to get everything back together, but through our friendship, and through our cooperation, we hope to, you know, get the year back on track for our friends in Kanazawa," said Chris Morrison, President of the Japan Culture Center of Western New York.
Chris Morrison lives and works in Tokyo, and he's the President of the Japan Culture Center of Western New York. It is a non-profit that organizes various cultural exchange activities and Japan-related events in Western New York.
It also operates the Buffalo Kanazawa Sister City Committee. It is a relationship that's more than 60 years old.
"We're sort of just on standby. We're letting, you know, the city take care of disaster response first, and once that phase is done and we move into the recovery and rebuilding phase, we'll definitely talk about visiting. Perhaps we can make a visit to Kanazawa to help out with whatever they need," said Chris Morrison.
Morrison lives in Tokyo, and the earthquake hit 200 miles away, but he still felt it at his apartment.
Michel Bruneau is a SUNY Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo. He's an author and expert in earthquake resistant design.
"I think up to the 1980s, the way things were done was probably not up to what we would consider to be acceptable today, and that goes for also engineered structures, so the type of damage we have seen in Japan for this earthquake is not necessarily surprising, not great, but not necessarily surprising," said Michel Bruneau, SUNY Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo.
But right now, the focus is on rescue and recovery. To help with the recovery part, Morrison organized a fundraiser.
"Right away after the earthquake happened, we got a huge outpouring of support. You know, Buffalonians are great neighbors even to our sister city in a totally different country, so we got lots of messages of support asking if everyone was okay and where they could send money, how they can help," said Chris Morrison.
Morrison set-up an earthquake relief fund. The goal is to raise $5,000 and the money will go directly to aid groups in Japan chosen by the local governments. Even if you can't give, the group is asking people to share the link.
