Blogs from the Coastal Structures Team - Tohoku, Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011 - page 83

high ground in time and we were told that 50 children from this school were killed.
There was a small memorial with flowers and gifts to recognize this sad event.
Our final two stops for the day were at Onagawa Port and the Ishinomaki. Onagawa
Port suffered inundation about 18 meters deep, while Ishinomaki, which is in a
partially protected embayment, had only four meters of inundation. At Onagawa,
several overturned buildings demonstrated the tsunami's powerful force. One
building appeared to be slab on grade, but another building that was close to the quay
have a deepened foundation with about one-meter embedment.
Figure A.12 An overturned building in the Onagawa port area. Due to
regional and local subsistence, the quay area is routinely wet during
high tides. (Source: Brian N. Jones)
This area experienced significant regional and local subsidence. We were at the quay
as the tide was receding, and a section of the decking was inundated and the water
line for the prior high tide was still apparent. Ishinomaki, which was closer to the
epicenter and tsunami source, had some quay damage that appeared to be from
subsidence, but otherwise appeared undamaged.