When the first tremor subsided, he rushed to his car to escape. Toru was working at a factory near the coast in Ishinomaki. His father’s body was never recovered his mother’s body was eventually found. Almost three quarters of Rikuzentakata was devastated, and Yoichi’s parents were swept away. “My house is being washed away,” someone said. From there they saw the tsunami swallow up the whole neighborhood. They finally reached a schoolyard, which was on higher ground. Then they saw the pitch-black building of the neighboring sawmill rushing toward them. They rushed to another shelter but could not enter the building because the entrance was blocked by debris. Still concerned about his parents, Yoichi along with his wife, Tatsuko, wanted to go back to see them but received news that a tsunami was approaching. Yoichi, who lived in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, immediately suspected that a tsunami would follow the quake, so he took his parents to a nearby shelter. The tsunami killed far more people than did the earthquake. There were tens of thousands of casualties, but thousands of bodies have not been found. Many others were accommodated in the homes of family or friends. At one point, as many as 440,000 victims were living in some 2,500 temporary shelters, such as schools and local community centers. Some 160,000 houses, shops, and factories were damaged or washed away. Sources of electricity, gas, and clean water were totally destroyed. In some places the waves were 45 feet (15 m) high at the shoreline, crushing breakwaters and riverbanks and surging up to 25 miles (40 km) inland. The tsunami created havoc for 420 miles (670 km) along the Pacific Coast of Japan. The quake’s epicenter was 80 miles (129 km) off the coast of Miyagi. “We watched as our house swung back and forth and dust gushed from the walls like smoke.” “We rushed outside and were shocked to see fissures in the ground,” said Tadayuki. Tadayuki and his wife, Harumi, were at home in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, when they heard a rumbling and their house started shaking violently. Some 20,000 people were killed or are missing. It triggered a massive tsunami and powerful aftershocks that continued to strike fear into people in the area for weeks. ON Friday, March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m., the fourth-strongest earthquake ever recorded anywhere in the world struck Japan. Read first-person accounts about those who survived the earthquake in Japan and the tsunami that followed. The 2011 Japan Tsunami-Survivors Tell Their Stories
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