Case Study - Japanese Tsunami Fundai's Sea Wall (March 11th 2011) Flashcards
Where is Fudai?
A town on Japan’s north east coast.
What was Fudai left like after the tsunami?
A huge sea wall saved the town.
No homes were destroyed or swept away.
How long did the wall take to built?
12 years.
How much was the wall?
£20 million.
Regarded as a waste of money until it saved the town.
How big was the wall?
Structure spanned 673 feet (205m) and was over 50 feet high (16m).
Who was hailed as a saviour?
Kotaku Wamura.
Who lived through the earlier tsunami and made it priority to defend his people from the next one.
Where else in Japan had sea defences?
Towns to the north and south of Fudai they built concrete seawalls, breakwaters but none were as tall as Fudai’s.
What was the town of Taro’s sea wall like?
33 foot tall sea wall spannong 1.6 miles across a bay but it proved no match.
In Fudai, how big were the waves?
66 feet (20m)
As water marks show on the floodgates tower.
Some ocean did flow in but cased minimal damage.
Gate broke waves main thrust.
How else was the town of Fudai lucky?
They have 2 mountainsides flanking the gates - natural barrier.
Where was Fudai’s main casualty?
Its port.
Destoyed boats, equipment and warehouses.
Village estimate loss was 3.8 billion yen to its fisheries industry. WALL DIDN’T SAVE EVERYTHING.
