Fukushima Town Serves as Staging Ground for Quake-Relief Effort
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Motomiya, two-thirds of the way between Tokyo and the tsunami-hit city of Sendai, has become a staging point for recovery efforts as Japan struggles to rebound from the worst earthquake in its history.
The town of about 30,000 is an evacuation center for people fleeing the area around the damaged nuclear reactor in Fukushima Prefecture, with 150 people sleeping in the town’s high school overnight. Its only open gas station is a major refueling stop for the convoys of Self-Defence Force troops, police, fire and telephone servicemen as they travel 350 kilometers (217 miles) north between Tokyo and Sendai along the Tohoku Expressway.