New Video: Minami-sanriku tsunami

One thing I've always noticed about japenese tourists is that they love taking pics and video. This may be one of the best documented disasters in history.

There are two women at 4:36 i think one gets washed away, the one running at 5:06 though with the handbag might be her but not sure though.

looks like one lady is trying to save an icechest or something.

Those of us living in coastal areas had better take notice of these vids... I for one will be completely ready and getting uphill much farther and sooner than i would have before.

It sure is amazing seeing people wait that long, grabbing heirlooms or whatever and then getting washed away

It doesnt bother me when peoples own ignorance gets them killed. It bothers me when their ignorance gets OTHERS killed. Like the guy who went to help and was swept away. May his soul rest in peace. There is no way he could survive being in that water, it is essentially a meat grinder.

Those who chose the last minute to run were naive and completely ignorant to the situation at hand. Judging by the fact that EVERYBODY else around was up on that hill, but one family chose to take their chances and lost.

I would feel much worse for the people if they had no idea a tsunami was coming, and were caught off guard. This is clearly not the case though. The whole rest of the town had evacuated almost, with everybody on higher ground that seemed to not even be far away!! Thats what gets me. They chose to risk their lives instead of moving a few hundred yards in a different direction. Not only their lives, but someone else who is nothing short of a hero in my eyes. I hope that guy gets some sort of post-humanous award for his actions.

Hopefully people who watch this video LEARN from it. In the future, if such an event happens again, more people wont wait around until the tsunami comes politely knocking at your door to decide to leave. And to barely even attempt a getaway at that. I dont care how old someone is, if your life is in imminent danger then adrenaline would MAKE you run faster then they were. It was as if they were just carelessly avoiding the water, not realizing the true potential of such forces.

Also lastly, I am not one hundred percent, but it is very possible that what that lady was lugging was a WHEELCHAIR with someone in it and NOT her belongings. Its hard to make out in the video, but if it is a wheelchair, then that is even more reason they should have left even earlier!

Its sad to see people die, but its even worse to see peoples ignorance and failure to act get other people killed, who should have never died in the first place. I pray for all those who have passed in such a tragedy, but I cannot grasp the concept of waiting till the last minute for a disaster in order to try to avoid it. The only thing I can think of, is that they had no idea the power of the tsunami - and until they started seeing neighbors houses being torn down like they hardly even existed in the first place - they then decided to finally run.

That was a horrendous video to watch. At the very end of it, we see the two types of human personality.

At 5:08, we witness one of the bravest things ever caught on tape. The man in the blue jacket, who had already reached safety, ran back down the hill to help the stragglers escape the wave. At 5:23, he himself is swept away as he tries to save one of the victims.

Just after that, you can see two individuals wearing maroon jackets; one is obviously a man, while the other appears to be a woman standing right next to him. Rather than help her, he abandons her to her fate. Now I'm not going to fault the guy for obeying his instinct for self-preservation - who can say what any one of us would do in that situation - but I do pray it wasn't his wife, mother, sister, or daughter. If it were me, the guilt of letting them be swept away so I could save myself would be overwhelming.

Oh my goodness ...the footage is absolutley horrific.
My thoughts are with you Japan.
It almost looks like a chap runs in at 5:09 to help people at the water side and gets swept away himself... I really hope he makes it out.... I really hope they all make it out !!!
Its difficult to watch these footages from Japan... Really does bring tears to the eye
Peace to all x

This is truly horrific! You can see there are people driving round who clearly did not get to higher ground in time and have no idea of the horror approaching. What's worse is, if you look at the distances involved here and how quickly the wave overwhelms everything, not even someone sprinting from where the sign is in the distance would make it to the high ground in the duration of this video.

It goes from a few puffs of dust in the far off distance to total apocalypse in just 5 minutes!!

I think I read the time between the earthquake and the wave hitting was less than an hour. I don't know why those people didn't get to higher ground. Perhaps they thought their house was far enough inland that they wouldn't be effected.

The woman carrying the bag. I really hope she made it. But the camera panned away. I fear she might not since the house roof following her suddenly surges forward dramatically.

I also read the tsunami was travelling at a speed of 30 mph over land when it hit. No one could out run that.

This is very saddening it shows the massive scale of devastation from this disaster much like the boxing day incident in 2006 this is very saddening. Especially at the end of the video

This coupled with the Nuclear Crisis its going to be a long recovery for Japan.
Our hearts and minds are with them

Truely harrowing, I got the same chills from watching this as I did from watching 9/11. I feel very sorry for the japanese people but they are strong people and I think they will come out of the other side of this even stronger!

God's speed Japan.
ALS

And to the guy who tried to save others only to get swept away, you will not be forgotten my friend. You will always be a reminder to me that the the Human race (for all it faults) are capible of great feats of heroism! You deserve a place amongst the stars!

Originally posted by NerdGoddess
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.

Its hard to say what one would do in this exact position, maybe their loved ones were following behind them and they were trying to wait for them or look back to see if they were still behind, also, some of these people looked old or possibly disabled, maybe he couldn't run like the wind, or maybe he was in shock his town and the people in it were swallowed up from a huge ocean wave. To call these people a "FOOL" is insensitive in my opinion. I admit, it was like watching one of those scary movies where you want them to go faster, don't look back, keep running, but now we know, thats not always the case in the real world.

As to the OP, this video is the most dramatic Ive seen yet, S&F. I'm not really sure if I wanted to even see this, but ya know what, I guess we should, I guess we should watch these videos to partially, but never fully understand these people's tragedy.

*tears streaming down my face

Peace,
Marriah

wow...
that was intense.

one moment a quiet Japanese town, people driving around, going about their business.
the next, their entire world turned upside down...

the people that lived had only what they were wearing. everything else, gone.

complete and utter devastation. so sad for these people.

reply to post by DaddyBare


oh my god the screaming coming from the people in the path of the tsunami.

we are so very, very tiny in this world.

Words cannot simply express...

I don't know why I watched this. It's heartbreaking yet so bizarre to watch my husband's homeland be obliterated while living on the other side of the world, even though we were lucky and lost nobody.

While they stand there safe on the hill they are still horrified knowing that people are about to die. The fear in their voices is harrowing, along with the sheer disbelief. "Uso! Uso!" (Impossible! A lie!). I've never heard voices like that before.

I truly hope that everyone that has watched or read about this disaster learns from it, regardless of whether you live near the ocean or just visit. Or about any disaster you could prepare for, actually. If they had to die so horribly, at least let it result in waking up some people out there.

Thank you for posting this. I'll never forget them and teach my child about the dangers out there and to be prepared.

Originally posted by deadline527
It bothers me when their ignorance gets OTHERS killed.

Those who chose the last minute to run were naive and completely ignorant to the situation at hand. Judging by the fact that EVERYBODY else around was up on that hill, but one family chose to take their chances and lost.

I would feel much worse for the people if they had no idea a tsunami was coming, and were caught off guard. This is clearly not the case though. The whole rest of the town had evacuated almost, with everybody on higher ground that seemed to not even be far away!! They chose to risk their lives instead of moving a few hundred yards in a different direction.

I dont care how old someone is, if your life is in imminent danger then adrenaline would MAKE you run faster then they were. It was as if they were just carelessly avoiding the water, not realizing the true potential of such forces.

Also lastly, I am not one hundred percent, but it is very possible that what that lady was lugging was a WHEELCHAIR with someone in it and NOT her belongings. Its hard to make out in the video, but if it is a wheelchair, then that is even more reason they should have left even earlier!

Its sad to see people die, but its even worse to see peoples ignorance and failure to act get other people killed, who should have never died in the first place. I pray for all those who have passed in such a tragedy, but I cannot grasp the concept of waiting till the last minute for a disaster in order to try to avoid it.

I wish I could do that. I have tried before, but I cannot even come close. Yet it seems to be quite a common occurrence lately, here on this site. How do you do it? How can you watch a short video, and then know ALL OF THE FACTS, pertaining to each and every individual within that video, and everything that they were doing up until the moment that the video started? It truly is a gift. You should use this gift to try to help others.

I will give you a chance to use this gift to help me. Help me to understand how you have reached these conclusions that ALL of these people, who were not on top of this particular hill, were naive and ignorant.

Before I continue, and before you get angry and spit out a reply referring to me as naive and ignorant , think of it this way-
Even IF you are 99% correct with your statement, there is still a strong possibility that just one, JUST ONE, of these other people(aside from the one that you do give credit to), had a legit unselfish reason for not being on top of this hill sooner. Then that ONE person, deserves the consideration of not labeling them as naive and ignorant. It does not matter about everyone else, but that ONE person does not deserve to be belittled by your statements. You should have enough respect for that ONE person, to not use these words pertaining to anybody within this video, because you actually do not know exactly why any of them were not up there sooner.

You repeatedly claim that they CHOSE to not be up there sooner, but you do not know what factors were involved. For some reason you have reached the conclusion that this was only one family, and insinuate that they were from one house. Were you there? How do you know where these people were at, or how far they had ran before they came into the view of this video camera?

You say that you don't care how old they are and that adrenaline should make them faster. I have been in a situation before where I had to get away quickly. Running through a wooded area and across a rather large field. Yes, the adrenaline was flowing, but that did not stop me from running out of breath. After a few miles of running as fast as I possibly could, I could not continue without first falling to the ground and gasping for air, until I got my breathing settled down. The instance that I am referring to, I was 19.

Your entire comment is about belittling each and every person within this video, based solely on your speculations. There are endless possibilities and reasons that could have caused these people to not be as quick as the others.

Here is just one possible example- Grandma doesn't hear very well, and doesn't move around too fast. Daughter, who lives closer to this hill, got the grandkids up to high ground as her first priority. She then went back to help grandma. You call her naive and ignorant.

That is just one possible scenario. I could go on and on with examples, but there is no need for that. The only true fact is that, unless you were there, then you do not know exactly why any of these people were not able to make it up this hill sooner. As previously stated, even if you are partially correct, the others that you are wrong about, do not deserve to be labelled by you as being naive and ignorant.

That may have been the scariest and saddest thing I have ever seen. That video left me speechless, more like in total shock for a while. I still don't feel right. Wow....

Originally posted by DriftingAway
I don't know why I watched this. It's heartbreaking yet so bizarre to watch my husband's homeland be obliterated while living on the other side of the world, even though we were lucky and lost nobody.

We all lost somebody, we lost our fellow human beings. Tragic.

reply to post by BrokenCircles


My consensus is that if it is a WHEELCHAIR they were lugging, and trying to save one of their family members, then I sort of understand although not sure why someone would wait till the last minute to do something that takes even MORE time.

But, if they were collecting belongings and valuables - over their life - is it wrong to be a bit angry? Especially when it resulted in a bystanders death. a HERO in my eyes.

NOBODY else from that hill came down to try to help. Actually, now that I think about it.. I'm not sure what I should be mad about. The people waiting till the last few seconds to try to get away, OR the boatload of people who just stood there and watched as people died when it was very possible to save them. I bet with a bit of assistance every single one of them people would have made it safely to higher ground.

Then again though, I am not in that situation and I pray to god I never will be. I hope if that ever happens more people have the courage to do what that one man did.

I really think that they just completely underestimated the power of the tsunami, and until they saw how far inland it was still tearing down house after house, THEN they decide to make a final dash for higher ground.

That's horrific to watch, especially the people at the end get swept away. I hope most of the town got to safety in time.

I feel sorry for the people in the car that drove under the bridge just before the water struck it.

this is what the town looked like soon after
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/79aed3477b88.jpg[/atsimg]
More than half of the population of Minamisanriku was unaccounted for ...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/79e378538995.jpg[/atsimg]
then here is one of what it looks like today
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8bbdf94ab229.jpg[/atsimg]
it is highly unlikely anyone caught in those waters survived
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7040b01a7e5b.jpg[/atsimg]