KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--Large ocean-going vessels lean on their sides, stranded in the debris left by tsunami like fish out of water.
KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--Large ocean-going vessels lean on their sides, stranded in the debris left by tsunami like fish out of water.
According to one expert, these vessels, driven violently ashore by massive waves, carved a terrible path of destruction on their journey inland following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Fumihiko Imamura, a professor of tsunami engineering at Tohoku University, said that more than five large fishing vessels became virtual battering rams as they ran aground, destroying ever ferroconcrete structures.
While city officials admit they were aware of the dangers of vessels being driven inland, as happened in the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, they said preventive measures would have required major, costly construction work.
Imamura's study found that damage from large fishing vessels was particularly extensive in the Shishiori district located deep in Kesennuma Bay.
One fishing vessel traveled nearly 1 kilometer inland before stopping in a residential area. The ships destroyed even ferroconcrete structures.
Imamura identified numerous paths of destruction dozens of meters wide in the Shishiori district. He said they were likely the work of ships washed aground and tossed around by killer waves 5 meters high.
He said fires that broke out on some of the vessels spread to buildings in the area.
The risk posed by out-of-control vessels became widely known after the 2004 tsunami drove a ship carrying a power generator about 2.5 kilometers inland from a port where it was moored in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
The city of Kushiro in Hokkaido has taken measures to erect protective fences, known as tsunami screens, in port areas to prevent vehicles on the ground from being carried out to sea as well as ships from coming ashore.
However, a Kesennuma city official said that because the city is home to many large, deep-sea fishing vessels, the costs of building an effective barrier were significantly greater, delaying its construction.
Imamura said this is probably the first time that compound damage caused by numerous large ships has been reported following a tsunami.
"Setting up countermeasures will be an urgent task facing the entire nation," he said.