what comes after tragedy...
Coastal towns like Natori and Minamisanriku took most of the blunt damage. This disaster had a confirmed death count of 15,897 and an injured total of 6,157 according to the National Police Agency. The devastating affects of tsunamis can be unimaginable and there are often multiple points of damage. The citizens of Japan faced the excruciating destruction of their homes (displacement), a massive fire in Tokyo and finally the meltdown of a nuclear power plant in Fukushima.
Affects
Displacement“In Japan, residents are still recovering from the disaster. As of February 2017, there were still about 150,000 evacuees who lost their homes; 50,000 of them were still living in temporary housing, Japan's Reconstruction Agency” (Live Science).
Losing your home, your schools, your place of business's, is a traumatizing and life shattering event. |
FireMany times during earthquakes, gas lines and other fire inciting structures can rupture causing massive fires in urban areas.
"► Fire occurrence rate per collapsed buildings in the Tohoku Earthquake was very high. ► Many conflagrations broke out in the coastal areas inundated by the tsunami. ► Oil spill from tanks damaged by tsunami was a major cause of the conflagrations. ► Another major cause of the conflagrations was the loss of fire fighting means. ► Electrical devices soaked with salt water were suspected to become an ignition source." (Tanaka). |
Nuclear MeltdownThe tsunami caused a cooling system failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which resulted in a level-7 nuclear meltdown and release of radioactive materials. The electrical power and backup generators were overwhelmed by the tsunami, and the plant lost its cooling capabilities. "Three of the four nuclear power plants at Fukushima suffered a meltdown" (Koide). Low dose releases of radioacive material have been proven to have damaging affects on the environment, in Fukushima this has manifested in the color and radiation level change in the pale grass blue butterflies that inhabit the area according to (Hancock).
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