MINAMISOMA, Fukushima Prefecture — There's a repellent stench coming from the cowshed. It's a mixture of manure, hay and something more difficult to pinpoint — something dank, musty, unworldly.
At the back, penned behind large wooden troughs, two cows stumble back and forth, searching for food and water. Two others are lying on their sides, eyes vacant, their bodies bloated. They, too, had waited to be fed, but in vain.
There is no water — the taps are dry — and there's nothing to feed them with, though even if there was, there's no one to put it out for them. The farmer has fled, along with all the other residents of this small community, who were told to leave following the disaster that began on March 11 a short distance down the road.