Ian Williams / NBC News

Junko Takashi, 79, stands outside her temporary home in the tsunami-devastated town of Otsuchi, Japan. All of the town's residents over 65 have a yellow flag they put out in the morning and take down in the evening. If no flag appears in the morning, then officials come and check on them.

OTSUCHI, Japan – When 79-year-old Junko Takashi saw the tide fast receding in the bay below her house, she remembered the warnings of her mother and her grandmother, that this was a sign of a tsunami.

But still she hesitated.

"I lived on high ground, on the hillside," she said. "I never thought the water could reach here."

She decided to take no chances, and leaving all her belongings behind her, she climbed to higher ground. She didn't see the tsunami rolling in, but remembers the terrible noise – like a waterfall, only far, far louder, she recalled.

By the time it was over, all that was left of her house were its foundations.

Some 70 percent of her town, Otsuchi, was destroyed and 10 percent of the town’s population of 16,000 are dead or missing. Its fishing industry, the backbone of the local economy, was obliterated.

Yellow flag marks sign of life
One year on and Takashi lives in a temporary home, consisting of a tiny living room, narrow kitchen and bathroom. It's one of a cluster of 80 temporary homes erected on the outskirts of what remains of Otsuchi.

She lives alone, her belongings neatly arranged in little cubicles around her. We could barely squeeze into her living room as she pointed to the television, fridge, microwave and heater, all donated by charities who were at the forefront of a massive aid operation in the weeks and months after the disaster.

Toru Yamanaka / AFP - Getty Images

This combination of pictures from Otsuchi, Japan shows a catamaran sightseeing boat washed by the tsunami onto a two-storey home on April 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom). Click on the photo to see a SLIDESHOW of before and after pictures.

Now much of that initial support has gone. "We're on our own now," she said.

"You've got to be positive. I am 79-years-old, who knows how many years I have left."

She told me that before the tsunami she was pretty self-sufficient, since she had land to grow all the vegetables she needed, and her two brothers were fishermen. Now she had to buy everything with her pension, while trying to save for an uncertain future.

But free temporary housing, in which 2,000 of Otsuchi's people now live, is only available for two years.

Outside her home, and outside those of many of her neighbors, flutters a little yellow flag. I asked her what that was for.

"They are for everybody over 65 and living alone," she replied. They are asked to put the flags out in the morning and take them down in the evening. If no flag appears in the morning, then officials will come and check on them.

Ian Williams / NBC News

A mountain of debris in the Japanese town of Otsuchi.

Mountains of debris and uncertain plans
Otsuchi appears to have made great strides in cleaning up the twisted wreckage that was once their town, and removing the fishing boats flung inland.

Looking down from the surrounding hills and all you see is a flat plain with a dusting of snow, just the foundations marking where buildings used to stand.

But the remains of the town has essentially been scooped up and piled into vast mountains of debris, which will take years to dispose of.

Takashi believes she will be allocated a new apartment once she leaves her temporary home, but the town of Otsuchi has been slow to draw up plans for the future. There is still no blueprint for what will replace a town virtually wiped from the map.

The local mayor has pledged to build a new 50-foot high seawall, more than twice the height of the one tossed aside by the tsunami. But there is no agreement as to where any new town will be built, nor how it can be made economically viable.

Elderly people, who dominate many of these small coastal towns, are wary of grand plans for new (and more economically sustainable) towns. They form an important political group.

"I want to live where I used to live," Takashi said. "I was comfortable there."

Staying positive
The future looks daunting, but Takashi is remarkably upbeat, showing me photos of some of the charity workers and celebrities who have visited over the months.

"I like visitors. I like to talk with people," she said.

"It's always been my policy to be positive about what lies ahead."

TODAY

Bruce Beresford-Redman

Bruce Beresford-Redman, the reality television-show producer accused of murdering his wife, Monica, in Cancun in 2010, has been extradited to Mexico, NBC News reported Wednesday.

The one-time "Survivor"producer’s attorney, Richard Hirsch, confirmed that Beresford-Redman's extradition process began Tuesday and he was extradited to Cancun, where he must face the magistrate within six days.

Hirsh told NBC News that Beresford-Redman has retained an attorney in Mexico.

In December, officials said Beresford-Redman was dropping his extradition fight, but a "delivery date" had not been set.

NBC News reported that Beresford-Redman arrived in Cancun at 12:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET) and was taken to the attorney-general's office. The Associated Press said that he was wearing a bulletproof vest and was escorted by nearly a dozen agents.

Monica (Burgos) Beresford-Redman, 42, disappeared from a Cancun resort where the couple was vacationing with their two children. Her body was found stuffed in a sewer cistern at a swank resort.

The Burgos family, in a prepared statement issued by attorney Alison Triessl and obtained by NBC News, hailed Bruce Beresford-Redman's return to Mexico.

"This day marks a major milestone in our journey to ensure justice for Monica," the family said. "It is our hope that Mexico will pursue his prosecution zealously and that once convicted, Bruce Beresford-Redman will be sentenced to the maximum term allowable by Mexican law."

In December, Hirsch said of the producer, "He is innocent and it is his hope that the court in Mexico will assure that he receives a fair trial in which, he is confident, he will be exonerated."

The family of Monica Beresford-Redman has said the couple went to Cancun to try to save their marriage. They claim Bruce Beresford-Redman, who is also the co-creator of the series "Pimp My Ride," was having a long-term affair with another woman. His wife, originally from Brazil, owned and operated a restaurant in Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez upheld an extradition order in December, saying that there are many pages of competent evidence supporting prosecution claims that the producer killed his wife.

"All of this evidence points to homicide committed by the fugitive," said the judge's ruling.

Prosecutors presented statements from hotel guests who said they heard loud arguing and cries of distress coming from the couple's room on the night Monica Beresford-Redman went missing.

The producer's attorneys have claimed the noises came from Beresford-Redman and his children playing loud games throughout the night. They introduced statements from the couple's 6-year-old daughter to corroborate the claim, but judges who have reviewed the case were not swayed.

Beresford-Redman had been ordered to stay in Mexico after his wife's body was found but he left and returned to his home in Los Angeles. He voluntarily surrendered to U.S. authorities after a warrant was issued in Mexico for his arrest.

Mexican courts do not have juries, and the producer will be tried by the same judge who issued the warrant for his arrest, Hirsch had said.

If he is convicted of aggravated homicide in Mexico, Beresford-Redman faces 12 years to 30 years in a Mexican prison.

His two small children have been placed in the custody of Beresford-Redman's parents with visitation by their mother's sisters.

NBC News correspondent Miguel Almaguer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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AP

Wati, second from right, poses for a photograph with her rediscovered family in Meulaboh, Aceh province, Indonesia, on Friday. The 15-year-old says she remembers her father putting her into a boat with her sister following the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami.

A girl who was swept away in the Indian Ocean tsunami seven years ago said Friday that she broke down in tears after tracking down her parents, who had long lost hope of finding her alive.

Wati, 15, showed up earlier this week at a cafe in Meulaboh, a town in Aceh province, saying she had been "adopted" by a woman who forced her to beg in the streets, sometimes until 1 a.m.

The teen said she could only remember her grandfather's name, saying it was Ibrahim. Someone at the cafe tracked down a man by that name, and the man — unsure if it was actually his granddaughter — quickly summoned her parents.

"When I saw my mother, I knew it was her. I just knew it," said Wati, who was given that name by the woman who found her. Her original name is Meri Yuranda.

Indonesian state news agency Antara reported on Thursday that the girl was aged eight when she was ripped from her mother's arms by the rushing waters near her home in West Aceh, Indonesia, in December 2004.

It said her mother, Yusniar, was trying to get her and two other children to safety at the time.

The Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations hit Aceh — closest to the epicenter of the magnitude-9.1 quake that spawned waves 30 feet high — the hardest.

On Friday, The Associated Press said Wati had been kicked out by her "adopted" mother when she stopped bringing in money.

'She has her father's face'
With tens of thousands of bodies never recovered in the province, many people continue to cling to hope of finding lost loved ones, putting up fliers or ads in newspapers.

Reunions, however, are extremely rare and, when they occur, rarely confirmed.

Wati's mother, Yusniar binti Ibrahim Nur, 35, said she did not need a DNA test to prove the girl was hers.

"She has her father's face," she said, adding that she had stopped believing she would ever see her daughter again. "Then I saw the scar over her eye and mole on her hip, and I was even more sure."

Wati and her father had different accounts of what happened on the day of the tsunami.

The girl says she remembers her father putting her into a boat with her sister, who is still missing and presumed dead. The father says that before the family was separated, he put both of his daughters on the roof of their house.

A girl who was believed to have been swept away by a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in Asia has reportedly shown up alive, nearly seven years to the day after she vanished.

Indonesian state news agency Antara reported the girl, named only as Wati, was aged eight when she was ripped from her mother's arms by the rushing waters near her home in West Aceh, Indonesia, in December 2004. Her mother, Yusniar, was trying to get her and two other children to safety at the time.

Antara reported Wednesday that the girl's grandfather, Ibrahim, met a teenager who had traveled from another region, Banda Aceh, saying she was trying to find her way home.

The girl said she could not remember any of her relatives' names apart from one -- Ibrahim, Antara said.

He became convinced the girl was Wati, and her parents also later identified the girl as their daughter by a small mole and a scar over her eyebrow, Antara said.

It added that reporters were not immediately told what had happened to the girl during the time she was away.