03-17-2011, 06:04 PM
Video at link - http://www.channel4.com/news/japan-the-r...f-kamaishi
Alex Thomson's visit to Kamaishi underlines the enormity of the destruction visited on northern Japan last Friday.
He writes: "We have seen destroyed factories, indeed whole towns, but we have never seen anything like the ruins of Kamaishi today. It's not just that the town has been largely destroyed - sad to say, that is a commonplace in the tsunami zone. It's that so much had been done to protect this area from major tsunamis.
"What I mean is this: the huge concrete sea walls built around the bay here. You walk along them and they must be at least 25 feet high. At the top, you are walking along something perhaps eight or ten feet wide. And the walls fan out from your feet down to the water level 30 feet below, and at that point they must be at least 30 feet wide.
"So you are talking vast amounts of concrete used here, because only this much concrete will protect the bay.
"Well, that was the plan.
"In fact, today, in the ceaseless, driving snow, you can see that the walls had been not just breached but ripped apart by the extraordinary violence of the tsunami. That meant that the areas behind took the full force, which they never expected to take.
"They thought they were safe. After all, that is why they built the walls in the first place, wasn't it?"
Alex Thomson's visit to Kamaishi underlines the enormity of the destruction visited on northern Japan last Friday.
He writes: "We have seen destroyed factories, indeed whole towns, but we have never seen anything like the ruins of Kamaishi today. It's not just that the town has been largely destroyed - sad to say, that is a commonplace in the tsunami zone. It's that so much had been done to protect this area from major tsunamis.
"What I mean is this: the huge concrete sea walls built around the bay here. You walk along them and they must be at least 25 feet high. At the top, you are walking along something perhaps eight or ten feet wide. And the walls fan out from your feet down to the water level 30 feet below, and at that point they must be at least 30 feet wide.
"So you are talking vast amounts of concrete used here, because only this much concrete will protect the bay.
"Well, that was the plan.
"In fact, today, in the ceaseless, driving snow, you can see that the walls had been not just breached but ripped apart by the extraordinary violence of the tsunami. That meant that the areas behind took the full force, which they never expected to take.
"They thought they were safe. After all, that is why they built the walls in the first place, wasn't it?"
