The Failed Break Water Barriers in Japan’s March 11, 2011 Tsunami – Video.

Kamaishi, Japan After the Mar. 11, 2011 Tsunami

November 3, 2011 – Japan’s Break Water Barriers Breached During March 11, 2011 Tsunami (Video):  See a three minute video of Japan’s break water barriers being breached during the March 11, 2011 tsunami here:  Break Water Video

The break water barriers, that were suppose to protect Japan from tsunamis, failed during the March 11, 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.  The wave in this video, that finally reached the coast of Japan after breaching the break water, was approximately 30 feet high.

After three decades and nearly $1.6 billion, work on Kamaishi’s great tsunami breakwater was completed three years ago. A mile long, 207 feet deep and jutting nearly 20 feet above the water, the quake-resistant structure made it into the Guinness World Records last year and rekindled fading hopes of revival in this rusting former steel town.

But when a giant tsunami hit Japan’s northeast on March 11, the breakwater largely crumpled under the first 30-foot-high wave, leaving Kamaishi defenseless. Waves deflected from the breakwater are also strongly suspected of having contributed to the 60-foot waves that engulfed communities north of it; in Ryoishi, Japan.

The Master of Disaster