Tsunami Zone Visit:

Tsunami Zone Visit: July 2,3,4,5, 2011 The following narrative describes our tour of the Tsunami Zone and our attempts to understand the events of March 11, 2011. All of us on the tour became increasingly aware that we are living in a time char...Tsunami Zone Visit: July 2,3,4,5, 2011The following narrative describes our tour of the Tsunami Zone and our attempts to understand the events of March 11, 2011.All of us on the tour became increasingly aware that we are living in a time characterized by an increased intensity in natural disasters.The effects of these disasters are exacerbated by human settlement patterns in landscapes historically unsuited for human habitation.The Tsunami Zone is representative of these vulnerable landscapes and serves as an example of how this demographic stress challenges us in articulating intelligent planning and development strategies. Recent cataclysmic events have taught us that buildings in the flood plains of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers will float away or be submerged, that residential development in some forests in New Mexico and Arizona are susceptible to the effects of mass conflagration, that the earthquake zones of the Pacific Rim will continue to exert their seismic influence through eruptions and tsunamis and that secure areas are necessary for survival in tornado alley.This awareness of imminent disaster creates an ensemble of existential issues that vary from acceptance of inevitable death and destruction to the gritty determination to rebuild and thrive no matter what the circumstances.In speaking with people on this tour we discovered both sentiments to be present.The net assessment incurred in strategic landscape planning challenges us to engage this expanding human condition and it is for this reason we are interested in this issue.Long range planning and short term solutions could be resolved through a balanced approach in addressing the future of the Tsunami Zone.July 3:Yoshihama:We meet Mr. Yasushi Sato, city councilman for Oofinato.We followed him to Yoshihama which seems to be the perfect example of an intelligent settlement pattern in the Tsunami Zone.A narrow valley with rice terraces in the valley floor with schools, housing and other built elements located on terraces above the high water mark of the tsunami.One person was lost in this town of 3000 inhabitants and he was working his rice field listening to music on his ear phones and didn’t hear the tsunami warning horns.Many people in this town are proud of their integrated hillside development and that people were saved because the tsunami in 1933 taught them a great lesson and that was to not rebuild in the valley floor.Senzai Bay:We met with a joyful fisherman who gave us photos of before and after the Tsunami.He explained that his grandfather told him that when he felt an earthquake at sea he should take his boat out to a depth of 100 meters as the tsunami would not effect him.This proved to be true and he saved his boat.Mr. Sato and the fisherman agreed that they loved this place and have learned to live with Tsunami.We asked Mr. Sato where he lived and he said above the Tsunami Zone.Oofunato:The town has already started to rebuild…even without permits, unheard of in Japan.The critical issue is putting people back to work and to avoid the continuing exodus from the town.The town looses 300 people a month.The fishing industry is about 1 – 2% of the former level.Most of the efforts focused on the recovery are achieved by day laborers in sorting through the rubble by hand.The average amount in recycling per day is about 30 dump trucks.Banks will not approve loans as land values are no longer a basis for collateral.Red Cross donations are directed into reconstructing residences and not businesses.Rikuzentakada: The Tsunami reached a height of 14 meters.The town was completely leveled as it was situated in immediate proximity to the water and the force of the tidal wave.2000 people died here as there was no high ground for refuge.Kesennumma: The town looks as if the Tsunami occurred yesterday.There has been no clearing of debris and the ghostly reminders of people and their homes are painfully present as one walks through the remnants of this once thriving fishing community.Immense trawlers are sprinkled across the landscape with their rigging draped here and there in the midst of upended residences and fishery processing plants. The stench of rotting fish and garbage is overwhelming.July 4:Onagawa:The hospital was preserved as it sat over 20 meters above the valley floor and only suffered minor damage on the ground floor.The Tsunami was 20 meters high (60 feet +/-) as it was funneled into 3 minor valleys and rose in height as a result of the geomorphic structure of these serpentine valley forms.The classic survival section of buildings on the side of the valley being preserved with total devastation in the valley floor reveals an ideal scenario for future reconstruction.We continuously referenced this idea of infrastructure and open space in the valley floor with new building occurring above the tsunami zone and located on the ecotone.This infrastructural system would contain underground utilities in flexible pipe that could withstand earthquake/tsunami forces with open valley waterways, meadows, playgrounds, gardens, parks, etc. occupying the valley floor.Nadia and Sara will be working on actual sections and diagrams of this reconstruction strategy.Ishinomaki:The Elementary School was buried and burned with huge losses due to being sited within the Tsunami zone.We were broken hearted seeing this tragedy.We spoke with several people in this town as they knew what was happening and fled to higher ground.It was very obvious that the people we were speaking with were very happy to be the survivors.We visited the new Tsunami victim’s cemetery late in the afternoon, lit incense and candles and offered our prayers. July 5:Sendai:Natori:We spent the last night of our study tour in Sendai and visited Wakabayashi and Natori in the morning before our departure for Kyoto.Natori was especially tragic in that they had built this sea wall supposedly sufficient to protect everyone from such a disaster.In fact, the Tsunami rolled over the wall and destroyed everything.Nothing was left except the foundations of the buildings.Our study tour included myself, Nadia Kasko, Sara Ruzombeka, Quinlin Messenger, Sharon Ungerleider and Daisuke Yoshimura.