Photographs of the devastation in Sendai taken by Lorne Spry an English instructor in Sendai who has been living in Japan for the past 16 years. He is originally from Richmond, BC and lives with his wife Mari and son Shoh.
These are Lorne’s captions for the photos:
1) Here I am standing on the dike road where I usually ride — or rode. I don’t think I can face seeing this again. The camera is looking over the alluvial land adjacent to the Natori River. In prior condition it was neatly tilled truck farming, or grasses and shrubs that screened pheasant and grouse. The tsunami rushed up the river towards the confluence of the Hirose river that goes through the centre of Sendai.
2) Most buildings in Sendai survived OK, but not all. This is one of those 100 year old buildings in Kawara-machi near where I live in Shirahagi-machi. I went to check on a friend who is the proprietor of a hair salon opposite. Some other buildings were damaged there two.
3) Each community has a siren or some audible warning system. Some communities have an emergency drill for practiced evacuation. In this disaster, there was very little time between the quake and the arrival of the tsunami
4) This is out in the tambo — the rice fields that are 400 years old. Here the houses were intact. Many of them appeared dry inside as they are raised up a bit off the land. Mud all over the place and the smell of salt water in the soil. In the picture, you can see the flooded land. And in the distance there is a column of smoke coming from a huge fire in Sendai Port. Some morons thought it was a good idea to build the gas works right in a tsunami threatened area.
5) Kasumi aerodrome and Japanese Self-Defence Force helicopters. 100,000 force members are attending to this crisis along with foreign civilian contingents and help from the US armed forces. Today I saw two huge US CH-135 Chinook twin rotor helicopters flying in formation — on their way north. The Japanese use these draft horses too. The one in the pic are “Hueys” … I think.
6) Arahama as it got gutted and pushed up the inside of the dike. I was so heat-broken and I cried when I got home. My bike is on its side in the foreground. I cycled further towards the sea, but I was in such shock over the destruction, that I never thought to take a picture.
I’ve adored Arahama ever since I got here. And now it is a rotting ruin — gone for the most part. Some people are still missing.
