Japan's most vulnerable hit hardest by crisis

Japan's earthquake and tsunami have taken a disproportionate toll on the country's elderly, as the disasters struck areas with high concentrations of older people. These citizens are also more vulnerable to the harsh conditions in the improvised refuge centres, where water is scarce, and food and fuel supplies have been running low.
The average age in the sleepy fishing villages and laid-back towns of north-eastern Japan, worst hit by Friday's magnitude-9 quake and tsunami, is considerably higher than in the rest of the country.
Many were left behind as the younger generation went to seek work in larger urban areas. Others have moved there in their twilight years, drawn by the region's quiet lifestyle and picturesque scenery. Old people's homes were at the forefront of the disaster. One such facility in Minami Sanriku in Miyagi prefecture, was 10 metres from the shore when it was hit by the tsunami.
Of the 170 residents, 30 were still unaccounted for. Family members were walking around the area Thursday, looking for parents or grandparents while rescue workers painstakingly searched the rubble. One man begged the rescuers for help. "Please find my family," he told a worker with a deep bow. "I think they might have been injured and carried to a hospital or somewhere," he was quoted as saying by broadcaster NHK.
Refugee centres hastily set up in schools and community buildings were struggling with severe shortages of fuel, food, blankets and other basics. The spartan conditions were especially felt by the older residents, who huddled together even during the day to keep warm. "I could not sleep well even though I wrapped myself in two or three blankets," one man, who looked over 70, told public broadcaster NHK.
An emergency evacuation from the area around the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant proved too much for 14 elderly people, as two passed away on the bus to a nearby shelter, and 12 more died shortly after arrival. The casualties had been in a fragile state of health before they were forced to move, news reports said. Many senior citizens have not even reached emergency shelters. Some 130 residents of the Fukuju-so old people's home in Minami Soma were under lockdown as they were in the danger zone near Fukushima.
Those within 20 kilometres of the plants have been evacuated. But those living between 20 and 30 kilometres away, including in the town of Minami Soma, have been told to stay inside and keep doors and windows closed. Their food and fuel were running out, health care workers said.
"I would like to move them to a safer place," Satomi Suzuki, a care worker at the facility, told NHK. "We've been trying to get help from the government, but we have not received any." As temperatures dropped to minus 5 degrees Celsius, the old people "have been freezing," she said. "We would greatly appreciate cars, petrol, more health care workers and to hear from shelters who can accept [the old people]," Suzuki said.