This event has been covered remarkably well through video and photographs, many of which are the first time tsunami's have been observed this close and this much detail. Here are a selection of clips with a little explanation that may help with your studies.
The first is of the waves coming in as a train of waves, remember that there are always a sequence of waves, the first is not normally the largest, it is often the fourth to seventh that are the largest, the wave is white and shows the crest breaking as the surge moves up through the estuary, although for a french news channel the narration is in English:
When I have said in class, that if you were in a boat and you were offshore you would be ok? The wave only becomes truly destructive once broken, which is why larger vessels in Hawaii and Japan are sent offshore beyond the break zone. To say you wouldn't feel much was clearly a myth having seen this video of the Japanese Coastguard facing down the waves head on:
Clearly, if you were unaware on in a smaller vessel, this would be a significant threat.
One a lighter note, here is a dog that was found a few days after and led rescuers to its wounded friend, as you know from previous lessons, pets are often the reason for people putting themselves at the most risk after and during disasters, yes i know this is a hotly debated topic in class, but the phenomena was observed in Christchurch, and following Katrina, people who still had their pets recovered faster and had fewer mental health issues than those whose pets had not survived. There are a number of charities whose main aim is to help Japans animals should you feel like donating.
In terms of the population, there have been some spectacular rescues, the man who was swept out to sea on the roof of his house, and found alive after two days 15km offshore:
This morning an 80 year old woman and her grandson were pulled from the wreckage of their kitchen having survived by eating food in tins in the ruined room, their 8 day survival is impressive considering neither was seriously damaged. There are stories of people lasting longer, a woman survived in Pakistan for two months, again buried in a kitchen where she had access to food and fluids, read this article from the BBC on survival in disasters to find out more.
More updates to follow, let me know if you find any other resources.
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