Shelter from the Storm

When you need it, you need it:

As a massive tsunami ravaged this Japanese fishing town, hundreds of residents fled for the safest place they knew: the local nuclear power plant.

That would be the Onagawa plant. But now that the folks at Onagawa know what happened at Fukushima, they want to leave, right?

"I'm very happy here, everyone is grateful to the power company," said Mitsuko Saito, 63, whose house was leveled in the tsunami. "It's very clean inside. We have electricity and nice toilets."

…

Within the nuclear plant, facilities are pristine, electricity flows directly from Japan's national grid, and evacuees can use its dedicated phone network to make calls.

"The general public isn't normally allowed inside, but in this case we felt it was the right thing to do," company spokesman Yoshitake Kanda said.

He’s right. It was.

"It's pretty spread out. People are just kind of lying around and relaxing," said Tatsuya Abe, 29, who is staying at the plant with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. "There are a lot of aftershocks, but it's safe.”

Who’s afraid of nuclear energy? Not these people – who needed shelter from the storm. Great story from Jay Alabaster.

The Onagawa nuclear power plant.