Google Street View: Fukushima

I have always been somewhat mesmerized by the pictures of Pripyat and surrounding areas after the Chernobyl disaster, there is something just eerie and otherworldly about a town abandoned in an emergency and left (mostly) untouched for so many years.

Now, Google has sent their street view vehicles through Namie-machi, an area of Fukushima that has been abandoned since the earthquake, tsunami, and meltdown.

Two years have passed since the disaster, but people still aren’t allowed to enter Namie-machi. Many of the displaced townspeople have asked to see the current state of their city, and there are surely many people around the world who want a better sense of how the nuclear incident affected surrounding communities.

Working with Google, we were able to drive Street View cars through Namie-machi to capture panoramic images of the abandoned city exactly as it stands today. Starting today, this Street View imagery is available on Google Maps and the Memories for the Future site, so anyone from Namie or around the world can view it.

Google Japan Official Blog

Take a look on the Blog, you can use the maps straight from the page or click the links and open it full screen. As you may expect, nothing from the disaster has been cleaned up in over two years. Buildings can still be seen collapsed into the streets, boats in the middle of grassy areas, and garbage strewn all around. The one thing missing from this area so far in comparison to Pripyat is the vandalism, and the area is mostly untouched since March of 2011.





Did a search and did not find this on ATS. Mods feel free to move or delete if required.

Hi. These are fascinating pictures.

If you are interested in Chernobyl then this website is worth looking at.This lady rides her motorcycle through some of the areas and takes her camera with her.

Eleana Filatova

She also has a journal on Fuku.

Fuku

yes i agree

oh.. man.. thats so sad..