Merged 8.8 quake in Sendai, Japan

[uk_dave]

BBC Panorama programme about this last night. Hard to watch at times, it dealt with the victims of the tsunami; those who had died, those who had survived against the odds. And the scenes of devastation which still exist were just..... hard to comprehend.

One particular story was a lady whose 12 yr old daughter was still missing, so the lady got herself trained to use a mechanical digger and was excavating the site of the school where the kids had been.

She didn't find her daughter's body there, but it did eventually wash up on the coast many miles away.

 

[Rolfe]

I saw that programme. They said a lot of people had packed up and moved away from Rikuzentakata, and they were trying their damndest to encourage people to stay in the hope that the town can be revivied.

One of the rather nice things was that the programme showed tsunami footage with people running and seeming to have been overwhelmed by the waves, but they'd traced many of them and they had in fact survived. I remember the total death toll in Rikuzentakata was quite a bit less than originally feared.

Rolfe.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Coincidentally, a friend sent me this video, which was apparently just recovered and released:

http://www.flixxy.com/japanese-tsunami-viewed-from-a-car.htm

Apologies if it's already been posted, but it's pretty impressive.

 

[Rolfe]

I've never seen that before. It's absolutely incredible.

Rolfe.

 

[uk_dave]

They showed a bit of it in the panorama programme ..... the bit where they're stopped and the driver in front of him gets out and runs just before the water hits.... and I think they included the bit where his vehicle sinks and the camera is submerged.

Truly terrifying though. At some points the water seems to be quite calm and he's just bobbing away along with other vehicles, then he gets drawn into the torrent of water and it gets much more fierce.

Yikes!

 

[Rolfe]

It's amazing how many people who were caught by the wave actually survived. I suppose swimming and grabbing big floaty things worked for a lot of people.

Rolfe.

 

[commandlinegamer]

New video of the tsunami, via a camera mounted inside a car whose owner was driving down the street as the massive wave struck:

http://www.flixxy.com/japanese-tsunami-viewed-from-a-car.htm

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Recently posted by me a few posts ago.

Still amazing, though.

 

[Rolfe]

I don't think you can over-link to that one!

Rolfe.

 

[commandlinegamer]

Ah; I'd searched for the thread, not expecting it to have had new posts.