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When Disaster Comes Calling

New footage from the 2011 Tohoku tsunami reminds us that these disasters can happen anywhere, any time.

By Bill Coffin | Updated on August 15, 2013
Flowers are left by a stranded fishing boat, which has become a symbol of the devastation of the 2011 tsunami in the city of Kesennuma. The boat is being torn down. (AP Photo/Azusa Uchikura)

In March 2011, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami plunged the nation of Japan into its worst crisis since World War II. The magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake some 43 miles off the peninsula of Tohoku killed almost 16,000, injured more than 6,000 and left nearly 3,000 people missing. It destroyed or damaged more than one million buildings. A great deal of that damage was from the tsunami generated by the quake, inundating areas as far as six miles inland, with waves as much as 133 feet high.

Estimates of insured damage from the earthquake alone approach $35 billion on the high side and total economic losses are estimated at $235 billion, making this the most costly natural disaster in history—without even taking into account the long-term effects of the multiple nuclear accidents the event caused.

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