Japan tsunami survivors face long wait to go home

Construction workers in Rikuzentakata were screwing in the corrugated aluminum rooftop of one of the first houses on Monday. The metal-sided structure rises on wooden stilts above the mud of a soccer field.

Family members watch Japan Ground Self-Defense Force personnel search for remains of a fellow family member in their home in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, on Monday, following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeast coast of Japan. Photo: AP.

Temporary housing is beginning to go up for the hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes in last week’s tsunami in Japan.

Construction workers in Rikuzentakata were screwing in the corrugated aluminum rooftop of one of the first houses on Monday. The metal—sided structure rises on wooden stilts above the mud of a soccer field.

Thousands of similar houses will go up in the coming months outside shelters scattered across Rikuzentakata’s hilly outskirts. Residents will likely stay in them for a couple of years until more permanent homes are ready.