It took TEN MINUTES for Minamisanriku to be swept away

[AsahinaKimi]

Video: Town Swept Away By Tsunami
One of the most-viewed videos on YouTube Japan today is this clip, which was filmed on March 11th from a hill overlooking the town of Minamisanriku: It took a mere ten minutes for the tsunami to destroy almost every building in sight. — Akihabara News

http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/04/11/video-town-swept-away-by-tsunami/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JapanProbe+%28Japan+Probe%29

[arcane1]

1. Oh my...

that's like something out of an HP Lovecraft story!! :scared:

[uppityperson]

2. In the snow. k&r. So sad.

I look at my town now with new eyes, am glad I work up a hill not near the water and not on liquificationable soil.

[Warpy]

5. I'm a mile up, so I'm safe from that sort of thing

unless there's an asteroid into the Pacific, in which case the 2 mile high tsunami would be the least of my worries.

Still, it's amazing how fast so much can simply be erased.

[CatWoman]

8. did you know that the tsunami created a lake up in the higher elevations?

forgot the name of the place, but it's posted on Frontline.

[Warpy]

10. Yes, and quite a few ponds

Once the trash and muck settle out, those might be advantageous new features.

Then again, they might just be the source of some flood in the future.

[Adsos Letter]

3. Nature. Despite the hubris of humanity we are nothing compared to the force of nature.

[freshwest]

4. Everyone on the planet is in danger of being wiped out. We should keep that in mind and...

Treat every person and living being with love and respect.

We and everything we love and know can disappear in minutes.

If we consider how fleeting life is, our values would be different.

[msongs]

6. was there no alert/warning? some evacuated others kept driving around down in the town nt

[hayu_lol]

7. Warnings were of little use following the quake and resulting tsunami...

The quake was something like 80 miles offshore. The tsunami was immediately formed and set in motion--speed of this tsunami was estimated at 500 miles a hour. The initial wall of water was about 50 feet high(15 M).

Simple to calculate how useless the warnings would have been...people had to have been stunned by the ferocity of the 9.1+ quake. No warning possible for that. At best, officials would have only had about 10/15 minutes to sound the alarms--provided that they still worked after the quake. 10 minutes, even if the alarms had gone off, gives people just enough time to look at each other and wonder what is coming.

Thats why the death toll is so high...people had almost no chance to get to higher ground. Matter of fact, the reactor buildings were almost 15 feet UNDER water at one point. Amazing that the buildings remained as intact as they did.

When I was taking college geology back in '75...the top of the Richter scale was 8. That was considered TOTAL DESTRUCTION. Since a 9.anything is at least twice an 8...it is a wonder that anything at all was left standing. Death toll will probably reach 40,000 before too long.

[KoKo]

9. I don't think any Americans (except Katrina Survivors) could understand this devastation...

Thanks for Post and Pictures of this. It's truly devastating...and our hearts go out to everyone.

It happened to you...and will, eventually happen to us, to some extent. We are all suffering or going to suffer together.

Sending you (((((GOOD VIBES)))) is what I hope for you and all of us.