Casey Calamusa, of Kent, stopped to notice the walls posted with names at an emergency evacuation center in Tome, Japan, just days after the earthquake and tsunami struck the country.

People had posted names on the center’s walls of relatives they had yet to hear from since the disaster.

“They were not able to communicate,” Calamusa said because the 9.0-magnitude earthquake had knocked out phone systems. “They wanted to know if their family was all right. You would see names of people they were looking for or people would post that they were OK.”

Calamusa, an international news officer for Federal Way-based World Vision, spent March 12-19 in Japan as the humanitarian agency responded to the March 11 disaster that has killed more than 10,000 people with another 17,000 missing and hundreds of thousands living in shelters.

“People lost their homes and their places of work,” said Calamusa, in a phone interview after his return home from Japan.

Calamusa’s duties in Japan included communication with World Vision staff in Japan as well as the agency’s global partners. He also helped deliver a truckload of 4,500 blankets to evacuation shelters in Tome. Tome is about 55 miles north of the city of Sendai, where the tsunami caused catastrophic damage. The agency also supplied bottled water and hygiene items to the shelters.

“You see people at their most vulnerable state,” said Calamusa, who also has responded to disasters in Haiti and Kenya during his four years with World Vision. “It’s raw humanity. But it means a lot to be able to help people out and give them a hand to help them back up.”

The response of the Japanese people to the relief workers impressed Calamusa.

“One of the things that most impacted me was how selfless they all were,” he said. “They lost everything. But when we arrived at the shelters, they wanted to share food with us. That’s how gracious they are. That was very humbling.”

World Vision has about 75 staff based in Japan and most of them have focused on responding to the disaster. Other World Vision disaster response experts from around the world also arrived in Tokyo to help.

Calamusa spent most of his time at agency offices in Tokyo.

“There is not much damage (in Tokyo), however some of the trains have been closed because of the earthquake,” he said. “There were also frequently large aftershocks. Our relief manager lives in Tokyo and his house was pretty badly damaged. When I went to Tome city, we drove through a street where almost every house had collapsed, and those that were still standing were damaged pretty severely and looked like they may collapse at any moment.”

Most residents that Calamusa came across seemed to be handling the disaster as well as could be expected.

“In Tome city, people were remaining calm, although they are obviously very worried about family and friends who remain unaccounted for,” he said. “Not only have their homes been destroyed, but also the infrastructure and the places where they worked, so it’s going to take a long time to rebuild.”

In addition to relief supplies, World Vision also will provide child-friendly play spaces to help children adjust to the traumatic changes in their lives.

“We’ll help provide informal education since so many schools were destroyed,” Calamusa said. “And we’ll have counselors they can talk to as we try to get some stability back in their life.”

The relief work in Japan is far from over.

“It’s important to remember that as the disaster fades from the headlines, people still are in need,” Calamusa said. “It’s not measured in weeks or months but in years.”

The World Vision office in Japan typically works to raise funds for response to events in numerous countries.

“Now they will respond to the quake in their own country,” said Calamusa, uncertain about how long the recovery could take.

Through last week, World Vision had raised more than $5.2 million for relief help in Japan.

“We need to keep the people in Japan in our thoughts and prayers,” Calamusa said. “It’s going to be a long journey.”

For more information about World Vision or to donate to relief in Japan, go to www.worldvision.org.