Down the road in Kolontar, the village first struck by the disaster, earth-moving machines take advantage of a sudden mild spell in an otherwise cold winter, to start clearing the ground for the first new buildings in the village.
In the past, the White House has always said that the right time for the president to visit areas stricken by natural disasters is well after the worst is past, when the arrival of Air Force One, a motorcade and the huge entourage of aides and Secret Service agents will not interfere.
It allows migrants from nations stricken by natural disasters or civil conflict to stay in the United States for as long as D.H.S. determines that it would be unsafe for them to return home.
When HIV/AIDS was killing off thousands of gay men, Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) became the church every person could turn to when struck by this disaster of apocalyptic proportions.
In January, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $48m for a resettlement plan, part of an initiative to help communities stricken by natural disasters.
Every day brings bad news about still more victims struck by this disaster and more large swaths of land destroyed.
Then, days after their homeland was stricken by natural disaster, Victoire Pisa rallied the Japanese industry by taking the Dubai World Cup in March.
Some of the funds are donations for those stricken by disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.
The combination of these factors has led to a dramatically reduced loss of life and injury when Japan is struck by the earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons, disasters to which it is still extremely prone.
As a special form of international aid, national resources should be made available to the EU and the UN so that they may be used on request by a country stricken by an environmental disaster.
On Monday night, watching the flames in horror from the river bank, many were in tears, as if they had been struck personally by the disaster.
