Tokyo, March 11: People in cars tried to outrun the huge tsunami waves that lashed the coastal highways of Japan soon after the 8.9 temblor hit the island nation sitting on the Pacific Ring of Fire. All this happened within an unbelievable time period of a mere 10 minutes.Drivers were seen fleeing the waves on highways close to the coast as the impact of the huge quake swept ashore while the car park at Disneyland in Tokyo was submerged.
Dramatic footage showed the surge washing away cars, a bridge and buildings at the mouth of the Hirose-gawa River, which flows through the centre of Sendai, while a roof caved in at a graduation ceremony in Tokyo.
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Japan Tsunami video Shows Death And Devastation The quake struck at 2:46 pm local time. This was followed by a series of aftershocks, including a 7.4-magnitude one about 30 minutes later. The U.S. Geological Survey upgraded the strength of the first quake to a magnitude 8.9.
At a Tokyo graduation ceremony, hundreds of people were injured as the ceiling caved in in what physicists describe as one of history "great quakes". The earthquake was so severe that buildings rocked and sway in China's capital Beijing, 1,500 miles away. Hawaii awaited with bated breath as the raging tsunami waves were expected to hit the islands at 3 am local time.
A large ship swept away by the tsunami rammed directly into a breakwater in Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture, according to footage on public broadcaster NHK, and numerous people are believed to have been injured.
Japan's meteorological agency said the tsunami struck Sendai, which has a population of about one million.
The quake and the tsunami that followed revived sad memories of Boxing Day 2004 tsunami that took a toll of 250,000 people in 14 countries including India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
On that day, the earthquake measuring between 8.9 and 9.3 on the Richter scale in the Indian Ocean created waves of up to 100 feet high devastating communities in south-east Asia.
The waves travelled at up to 500mph after the huge earthquake caused by the sea floor jolting up by 33 feet shifting vast amounts of water.
Some estimates put the 2004 death toll as high as 300,000 people. It was the sixth deadliest earthquake recorded
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