New Video: Minami-sanriku tsunami

The sheer panic of people trying to flee the Japanese tsunami has been captured in a newly-released video that shows the life and death race to outrun the wave.

The fate of some of those in the footage is unknown as the water rises so quickly that they simply disappear in the swell carrying cars and buildings.

Residents from the town, believed to be called Minami-sanriku, are seen running up the side of a hill to safety as the water behind them closes in on them.

Not sure if I can post this vid here as it has a different country code to the video's addy if it doesn't play, click the link below to go stright to the website



Click here to view vid

That sent shock waves through my body. So terrible what is happening over there. And the people here have no idea and continue on like nothing is happening.

Absolutely mind-boggling I can't even begin to imagine the terror of being hit by a mag 9 quake and then having to witness your entire town being washed away. There are no words really.....

The end was disturbing to watch.
It was very surreal.

Hard To Watch ....

I'm thinking the whole time ...Shouting inside ...."Get out of There ....Get Out of There ... Go GO GO!

the last few minutes of this frustrated me.
THE TSUNAMI IS LITERALLY AT YOUR DOOR... and NOW you want to leave?! AND
they werent even like hustling to get up the hill. and the one guy closest to the water is like... swag walking... WITH A TSUNAMI WAVE about to literaly bite him in the ass. D: ughhh!!L!:J!:J!!J
RUNNN!!!! i just kept screaming at my computer RUN YOU FOOL RUN!!!!
I feel horrible for everyone affected by this tragedy.

YIKES!!!!!!!!



Buddy in red shirt was too lucky...
Still, not really.

reply to post by Stringycheeseman


People simply don't comprehend that this is not just Japan's problem. This is the world's problem. Any place that has similar topography, location, fault lines, volcanoes, etc., could be subjected to disasters of this nature. Look to our recent past with Indonesia, Haiti, China, New Zealand and places I am sure I haven't named. These disasters are occurring more frequently and to greater capacity. Japan's horror was simply documented in more detail so that those of us outside can see. And we are not even discussing the nuclear aspect.

From the very first video's of the tsunami, a chill struck me to the bone. Whatever they have listed as the official death toll, is NO WHERE near accurate. Several prefects documented towns missing more than 10,000 people each. This video alone, could easily account for thousands because of the number of homes and businesses visible, as well as the traffic seen moving even as the wave over comes the area.

Thank you for the video. It is horrific, but in its scenes we see the truth of the disaster. BT

I really hope the people at the end made it. That was way to surreal. Can you imagine being one of these people who probably really thought the world was ending everywhere. My heart goes out to all of them. Alright sheeple, now back to your regularly scheduled program.

minute 1= curious to what they were saying.

minutes 2-3= kinda glad I didn't understand the words, because the tone was sad enough.

minutes 4-5= face closer to screen, mouth open, and speechless.

speechless

I dont know if they all made it...
but there at the end you see that lady look behind her to see that house coming up fast...
to her I wanted to scream... Drop the bag lady... you got get to high ground now!!!

bet she didnt make it... the flood was to close and she wasnt that fast

.....Speechless

Pretty sure the "slow" people were geriatrics.....im sure they wanted to run like hell but just couldn't......sigh

I'm not one to usually get emotional, but that was very very tough to watch.

Really not at all what I'd expect a tsunami to look like. I always thought it'd be a wall of water that'd wipe out the town in one fell swoop. Not what I expected at all, they actually had time to get away, which is one thing I wouldn't have thought was possible. Still devastating, but not as dramatic as I expected.

Originally posted by BrokenCircles
minute 1= curious to what they were saying.

minutes 2-3= kinda glad I didn't understand the words, because the tone was sad enough.

minutes 4-5= face closer to screen, mouth open, and speechless.

speechless

What they were saying is pretty much what you'd expect them too...
at 1 minute you hear people in the background saying things like "Look at how big that wave is!"
at 2 minutes you see the car driving through the tunnel someone says "Idiot dont go there!"
At 3 minutes you hear people say "Oh my house!' and one lady cries, "There goes everything!"
Not a lot more is clear until you get to the end... when you see they older folks running up the hill someone is yelling "Hurry Hurry!" then at the very end where you see they guy with the red shirt helping someone up the stairs... the camera man clearly says, "Someone was swept away."

Still have chills after watching that. I am sure that the two people at the very end of the video didn't make it out - you can see that they were swept away. So incredibly tragic and terrifying.

OMGawd...I was already crying halfway through
I agree the people looked older, maybe like here they refused to leave earlier...
I'm just glad the cameraman didn't focus exclusively on the people...would've been TOO horrific!
Makes me even more angry that we keep seeing the Bush-Clinton commercial begging for continued
aid for Haiti but NOTHING for Japan??

Absolutely shocking to watch the end. Those poor terrified people with death literally grabbing at their shoulder.

like others I was shouting at my screen for that lady to drop the handbag and run! I heard that people even got changed before leaving their houses as they thought they had plenty of time and wern't informed properly about how far the tsunamis could travel inland.
It reminded me of the 2004 tsunami where people gazed out to sea watching the wall of water coming at them and not running till the last second.

My God, that has me so choked up right now. I wonder, those people in the end and the ones in their cars at the beginning, were they just thinking " It's not gonna be that bad." or " It's just another tsunami warning, nothing happened before, so why bother evacuating now?" Can't understand the language, but the fear and emotion behind it is chilling.