I watched a lot of the earlier 2011 videos now 13 years old, but a few new ones continue to be released each year, especially those with lower quality.
This 5 minute video while it was lightly snowing may be the best showing the full power destroying a city. By 3:00 many are obviously panicking that their building is not so safe while watching others eventually topple and wash away. Later next day at 3:45 with sun out is the most impressive video sweep of resulting destruction I've seen yet. At 4:30 is a sweep weeks later after partial clean-up including stacked piles of mangled vehicles.
Parts of this 14 minute video is especially good. Apparently from top of a building. As the black water initially rolls up their street, one can hear initially Japanese women chattering and laughing at high speed. Of course, many Japanese are excited by experiencing natural disasters. But later when it reaches their area, many are no longer laughing. Audio is good so later when the water recedes, much interesting sounds as debris bangs against each other.
This newly loaded longer 41 minute video of the 2011 Japan tsunami at Kesennuma City, from the more inland bays at the Fish Market. Builds slowly and by 10:00 gets more interesting so skip parts. Wish they has a transcript of what the Japanese were saying. At 15:00 nighttime fires show as oil spread across sea surfaces with the rest dark boring.
At 2:10 in the first video, notice how the dark row of trees up the street begins floating down the street.
At 2:40 the camera person points in the opposite direction showing another similar height building with other scared people watching.
At 3:25 watch as a man from a lower story of the building manages to climb up the side of the building and over the railing onto this rooftop to escape rising waters.
In the second video, despite the powerful tsunami public address speaker blasting, boats moving down river and people are still moving about rather normally, unaware what will rapidly follow. The river current is still flowing out towards the sea to the right.
At 2:10 the loud tsunami sirens howl.
It is at 3:10 one first notices the river current slowly reversing.
By 4:40 the current upriver has noticeably increased but still not at a concerning rate.
At 6:10 a boat with a crane makes metal rattling noise as it brushes against the higher building structure the camera persons are at. Boats are no longer able to move downriver as they swirl about.
It is at 8:00 that the camera persons first see signs down river of crashing white water from apparent much higher flows and white smoke that is quickly followed by sudden appearance of larger debris.
At 8:50 we see a ship that had earlier been traveling down river now passing out of control nearly capsizing.
At 10:00 several large white floating objects appear in the distance. The camera persons are obviously now worried in how unsafe their viewing location is.
At 11:00, the water in monstrous waves has turned to a dark black and upriver debris clouds against surrounding darker mountains rise into the air.
At 11:35 the concerned camera person shuts down the camera a bit and moves to a higher location. Next some large ocean ships have been swept into near view and the current has reversed moving back towards the sea. Much debris sound rattling about.
At 14:45 black smoke rises as the camera person turns it off followed by night fires from oil spilling across waters catching many structures on fire.
17:05 the next sunny midday in a rural area upriver.
At 18:50 he is back where he shot the previous day panning across areas of destruction.
At 21:20 he is tromping about mud in a debris area.
At 24:20 he follows 3 military rescue persons.
At 25:40 he is on a boat observing passing mangled boats and structures.
26:10 shows a burned boat then several more. Because the burning oil on the water was downriver during reverse flows, fires didn't reach most of the city.
At 34:35 after the long destruction survey cruise, he is back on land.
At 35:50 zooms towards a US flagged ship.
At 36:30 a view down of destruction from a higher hill.
It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, traveled at 700 km/h (435 mph) and up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away.
The snowfall which accompanied the tsunami and the freezing temperature hindered rescue works greatly; for instance, Ishinomaki, the city with the most deaths, was 0 °C (32 °F) as the tsunami hit. The official figures released in 2021 reported 19,759 deaths, 6,242 injured, and 2,553 people missing, and a report from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent relocation.
Interview with resident of Ishinomaki shows they were not prepared for such a large tsunami.
