Japanese Farms

I'm sure everyone joins me in sending all our hearts and prayers to the people in Japan. All of the pictures and videos are just devastating. I was there for 2 weeks in 2009 and of course took great notice of all the farms and farmland. It is quite integrated into the landscapes in the coastal (flatter) areas so is quite visible from the trains and highways. I literally saw hundreds of thousands (probably more) of hoophouse structures from train rides. So I cannot begin to digest this helicopter video footage below showing 100s of hoophouses washed away in the course of a minute. To put this in perspective many of those structures are each the same size as one of my hoophouses or bigger. I have 4 structures. That was 100s, maybe more. I began counting and stopped. And there are agricultural areas like this up and down that coast. Lets just hope this video is of some of the worst areas to be inundated by the tsunami and subsequent surge. Here in Michigan we've had a lower than average temperature lows this winter as well as above average snow (and thus clouds and dimished light) so I've been dissappointed with the amount of crop volume we've been able to put into the CSA program. But it is hard to think I can even begin to fathom how I would really feel if the site I've spent years building was washed away in an instant, not to mention the soil and soil fertility that has been displaced.