Japan has provided shelter for 390,000 refugees, a tremendous job.
Over 100,000 buildings partly or wholly destroyed in Iwati and Miyagi Prefectures.
Fuel shortages have hampered efforts to deliver supplies to the shelters and to activate heavy equipment; priority measures enforced.

Removal of rubble has enabled Defense Forces to build and/or open roads to the coastal cities.
Myagi Prefecture is using helicopters to deliver supplies.
In coastal Ofunato, Iwati Prefecture, heavily damaged, schools have reopened.

Relief efforts are strong, but the magniture of the disaster makes them look ineffective.

The press concentrates on the effects on the elderly (Japan's aging population), a small number of whom succumbed even though removed to shelters.
Japan Times, March 17.