Blogs from the Coastal Structures Team - Tohoku, Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011 - page 78

Yamada and had not returned there since the
tsunami. At the time of the disaster, he spent
several days waiting to hear word that his
parents and family were safe. The final
Japanese member of the team is Professor
Haryuki Kojima of Kyushu Kyoritsu
University, whose experience covers a wide
range of coastal topics including the modeling
of non-linear wave structure interaction.

Our last stop of the day was at Otsuchi, where
12 to 15 meters of inundation had caused a vast
area of devastation. While cleanup efforts were
well under way, the sheer amount of debris,
wrecked vehicles and twisted and burnt steel
remnants were overwhelming. One trend we
have noticed is that debris removal includes a
reasonable effort to sort out recyclable materials
including glass and electronics, seen at right.

Figure A.6 Baskets of electronic
waste, light bulbs and medicine
bottles that were separated from
the main debris piles, possibly for
special handling and disposal.
(Source: Catherine Petroff)

At Otsuchi, the team observed a 54 meter wide
breach in an overtopped levee. At the same location, the deck had been removed
from a bridge crossing the river. Further north in town, near the famous location
of a catamaran perched on top of a house, flow over a tsunami barrier had resulted
in failure of several wall sections and a large scour hole as well as failure of the
tsunami gate. These failures had many similar attributes to those we had seen in
other ports: they involved the powerful hydraulic forces developed by
accelerating overtopping flows and extensive scour of foundation and fill
material. After a three-hour drive inland to find accommodations, the team
finished its first full day of fieldwork.

Day4—Saturday,May14
The team left our hotel this morning at 7:45 a.m., on its way further south along the
tsunami-ravaged coast between Toni Bay and Rikuzentakata. We reached Toni Bay
after a two-hour drive back to the coast from our inland refuge in Hanamaki. At Toni
Bay, we briefly viewed damaged caissons on a breakwater before proceeding to the
small fishing village of Kojirahama.