Scenes of devastation at heart of disaster
Many area residents spent night outdoors
Miles from the ocean’s edge, weary, mud-spattered survivors wandered streets strewn with fallen trees, crumpled cars, even small airplanes.
Relics of lives now destroyed were everywhere — half a piano, a textbook, a soiled red sleeping bag.
On Saturday, a day after a massive tsunami tore through Sendai, residents surveyed the devastation that has laid waste to whole sections of this northern port of 1 million people, 128 km from the epicentre of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that set off one of the worst disasters in Japan’s history.
Rescue workers plied boats through murky waters around flooded structures, nosing their way through a sea of detritus, while smoke from at least one large fire billowed in the distance. The gas stations on streets not covered with water were swamped with people waiting to fill their cars.
A Family Mart convenience store 5 km from the shore was open for business on Saturday, though there was no power and the floors were covered in a thick layer of grime.
“The flood came in from behind the store and swept around both sides,” said shop owner Wakio Fushima. “Cars were flowing right by.”
“The tsunami was unbelievably fast,” said Koichi Takairin, a 34-year-old truck driver who watched everything around him sucked into the surging waters as he sat inside his sturdy four-ton rig.
“Smaller cars were being swept around me,” he said. All I could do was sit in my truck.”
He managed to wait out the waves that swept some 10 km inland, but an unknown number of others perished. The police said they had found 200 to 300 bodies washed up on nearby beaches, but authorities are only now getting a look at the extent of the devastation in Sendai and along the nearby coast.
Many area residents spent the night outdoors, or wandering debris-strewn streets, unable to return homes damaged or destroyed by the quake or tsunami.
Those who did find a place to rest for the night, awoke to scenes of utter devastation. Takairin slept in a community centre.
Workers at an electronics store in Sendai gave away batteries, flashlights and mobile phone chargers. Several dozen people waited patiently outside even as a steady stream of aftershocks shook the city.
From a distance, the store appeared to have survived the Friday’s devastation intact. But a closer look revealed several windows smashed out and walls buckled slightly outward.
Inside was chaos. The ceiling of the second floor had collapsed, and large TVs, air conditioners and other products lay smashed and strewn about the aisles.
A statue of a white dog, mascot of a Japanese mobile carrier, sat askew in a dark corner.
Pieces of bright yellow insulation from the ceiling lay scattered on the ground, and the contents of the entire building were soaked by the automatic sprinklers that were triggered by the quake.
