You've probably never heard of Minami Sanriku, but on March 11, 2011, this coastal Japanese town of 17,000 residents was completely demolished by what is estimated to be a 30 to 40 foot tsunami.
Although you likely saw the first of these videos of the actual event, you probably missed an absolutely heart-breaking report done by Britain's Channel 4 News that is guaranteed to leave you weeping for these poor people (videos follow with transcript and commentary):
That first one you've likely seen already. That's the tsunami entering the harbor of Minami Sanriku.
This next one is from further inland filmed on top of a hill above the residential area:
And this is Channel 4 News's Alex Thomson reporting from the aftermath:
ALEX THOMSON reporting: (Voiceover) The offshore islands and the beaches were renowned. Minami Sanriku itself famed for its festivals across the calendar, now, one date, Friday, March the 11th, 2011, the day Minami Sanriku was obliterated. The destruction here, they say, worse than anywhere else in Japan. Ninety-five percent of the town gone, and all by a huge tsunami of 30 or 40 feet. It plowed over the roofs of these four-story tower blocks. After miles of country unaffected by earthquakes, you come to it with immediate effect. Pass the police checkpoint and the silence strikes you. Kites and buzzards quarter the rubble, and yet another body quietly removed with whatever dignity an old blanket can provide. Squads of police continue the retrieval process, but hardly anybody here appeared to be looking for survivors.
(Destruction of town; vehicle on road; destruction of city; birds in air; body being moved by people; emergency personnel on road; man searching through debris)
THOMSON: As if this town hasn't suffered enough, it's frankly--well, the pictures tell their own story, pulverized. And right now, we're being told to get out because they're saying there's another tsunami alert. So as you can see, we got to go.
(Voiceover) Between such alarms, they wander back during the day. Some bewildered, others phlegmatic. But all simply dwarfed by this. The empires of men upturned in moments.
(People walking; debris)
THOMSON: Tell me, how many people have been killed in this town?
Unidentified Man #5: I'm not sure. But according to the news, 10,000 people died out of 17,000 people in this town.
THOMSON: Ten thousand out of 17,000?
Man #5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Very sad.
THOMSON: (Voiceover) Killed in this awful collision between the incomprehensibly vast with the pathetically intimate. The sheer force and scale of it's hard to take in. Hundreds of thousands of tons of saltwater and debris rushing up this valley, filling it 40 feet deep at 15, 20 miles an hour.
(Person walking past crashed vehicles; debris; wedding photo amid debris; debris in valley)
THOMSON: Look at it, canals reformed, embankments gone, harbor walls obliterated. Where I'm standing now, look at that, it's over a mile and half inland from the harbor of the distant sea way down there.
(Voiceover) Also obliterated.
(Debris of city)
THOMSON: And when you go this way, you look up the valley.
(Voiceover) Look at that, up past the old telecommunications building, around the bend, and the debris goes on around that bend for at least another mile.
(Road and debris)
THOMSON: (Voiceover) There is no hospital here. That's gone. So serious injuries must be flown out with the Japanese defense force. The waiting can be simple, undignified even, but there's a real sense of a community pulling together in all this, and astonishment that the outside world should care. At the school, a woman hugged us and said, `I can't believe you've come all the way from England for this.' Pulling together, too, behind the school gym, delicate work, this, the bureaucracy of death, identifying bodies and sending them on for their funerals. This is a small town. They know these people. These nine more bodies, this time from a building just next door to the high school, the old people's home. Huchita Takin is a restaurateur in town, or he used to be. As he put it, there's nothing left now except a concrete base.
(Helicopter; people loaded onto helicopter; people with elderly people on their backs; people carrying person; people covering up bodies and marking)
Unidentified Man #6: (Foreign language spoken)
Unidentified Man #7: (Foreign language spoken)
Man #6: (Foreign language spoken)
THOMSON: (Voiceover) They're shouting, `Run, run!' And not very politely, either. It's another tsunami alert. Nothing happened here, though in fact there were a couple of tidal waves a little further up the coast. And look at the faces in what's left of this town. You take such warnings seriously. And should you wonder why so many are missing, presumed dead, when the town had 30 minutes warning between quake and tsunami, the answer's in the terrain. Penned into a steep valley north, south and west, the one road out was quickly jammed as the 40 foot wave began coming in.
(People climbing stairs; emergency personnel; debris; people looking at debris and water; debris in valley)
Britain's Daily Telegraph had more about this town Monday:
Of the 17,000 residents that call this tourism magnet home, more than 10,000 remain missing, feared dead.
They were the first to feel the force of the tsunami, given their homes sit just 80km west of the 8.9-magnitude quake's epicentre. It was a direct hit, as quick as it was devastating. [...]
Police believe a train jam-packed with commuters is buried in the slurry. [...]
Japanese authorities confirmed yesterday 7500 people had been evacuated from the area to 25 shelters in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
Please find it in your heart this evening to say a prayer for these poor people and their loved ones.
