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Tsunami "Year Zero" Ends / Fukushima's 1st Nuclear Winter Begins { 28 images } Created 7 Feb 2012

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  • Once a great pine forest of 70,000 trees, covered the oceanfront at Takata Matsubara until the 11 March 2011 tsunami swept through decimating them all.  Now the sea  under cuts the roots beneath their stumps, giving them an other worldly appearance.  Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_001.jpg
  • Cow and her unseen calf housed in a barn right in front of a barrier to the Fukushima nuclear no-entry zone, the borderline for the territory too contaminated for human habitation and yet cattle raise here, and their milk, exposed to the contaminated winds and dust may be sold on market as long as their feed comes from outside the region and is not contaminated.  Hay is covered to protect it from the rain but the entire area surrounded by land contaminated with radioactive cesium.  On 25 August 2011, the Japanese government lifted a ban on shipping beef from Fukushima Prefecture. There is no guarantee that the meat from any animal from this farm will be randomly tested for radiation.   Iwakiota, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_002.jpg
  • The massive tsunami wall at Toni that the tsunami pushed over.  The neighborhood behind it was totally destroyed.  Iwate Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_003.jpg
  • Twilight on a lonely highway through the ruins in the tsunami zone of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_004.jpg
  • Ocean going ship remains in place, blocking a street, one year after the black tsunami in Kesenuma, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_005.jpg
  • Nuclear winter in Fukushima, Prefecture: Barrier barring entry into Iitate-mura village buried in snow.  Iitate-mura is in the heart of the expanded nuclear evacuation zone because of high wind-friven radioactive fall-out from explosions at the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant and residents are not likely to return for years or maybe for decades.  Iitate-mura was contaminated by wind-driven radioactive fall-out from the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant.  Iitate-mura sits in an area that annual ambient radiation rates are estimated to be over 20 millisieverts in most areas and others are at over 50 millisieverts annually, the latter of which may indicate that decontamination may take decades.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_006.jpg
  • Sea water bubbles up from below on a street in the port district of Kesenuma, which floods during every high tide because Japan's Tohoku coast subsided almost 1 meter (3.28 feet) because of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.  This will be one of the long lasting legacies of the earthquake/tsunami disaster with port districts and vast coastal rice growing regions salinated from daily tidal flooding.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_007.jpg
  • Nuclear winter in Fukushima, Prefecture: Night falls on a narrow row in an evacuated village in Iitate-mura.  Villages in the extended nuclear evacuation zone still have electric power, evident in the street lamps, but residents may be forbidden from living in their homes for many years or even decades.  Iitate-mura was contaminated by wind-driven radioactive fall-out from the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant.  Iitate-mura sits in an area that annual ambient radiation rates are estimated to be over 20 millisieverts in most areas and others are at over 50 millisieverts annually, the latter of which may indicate that decontamination may take decades.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_008.jpg
  • The beauty of Iwate's many narrow inlets and bays almost pulls the eye away from the tsunami debris piled up behind the beach to the right where the remains of a fishing village have been piled up, near Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.  There is simply nowhere else flat to put it.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_009.jpg
  • Barren, tsunami-devastated Rikuzen-Takata meets a sliver of shiny sea, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.  Residents probably will never return to this exposed lowland site that was wiped out by the 11 March 2011 tsunami but large future plans are.difficult because this open space is actually a patchwork of private property, where there are owners who perished in the disaster.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_010.jpg
  • Nuclear winter in Fukushima: Peaceful winter scene in the extended evacuation zone where not a soul has passed since the snow fell.  Tsushima residents were forced to evacuate their village after a wind-driven radioactive cloud from an explosion at Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant scored a direct hit on this valley.  Estimated annual radiation levels exceed 50 millisieverts, making the village unihabitable for years, maybe even decades as Tsushima is one of most irradiated villages in Fukushima Prefecture.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_011.jpg
  • Pillars mark entrance to a driveway for a house destroyed by the tsunami, where the land has subsided almost 1 meter (3.28 feet), Karakuwa-cho, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.  High tide in this protected cove now covers the entire property.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_012.jpg
  • Oversized semi-permanent sandbags keep cleared road in Ofunato free from seawater that oozes up in this port district with every high tide because the land has subsided almost 1 meter (3.28 feet) since the earthquake hit and tsunami swept through destroying the port area, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.  One year earlier, this road was completely obsured by tsunami debris.  The subsidence of the Tohoku coastline may be one of the biggest post-disaster challenges facing coastal communities.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_013.jpg
  • Tsunami debris piled up against a cracked tsunami wall that failed to safe , Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.  Almost every city in the tsunami zone has piles of tsunami debris, usually piled up in  the port areas, as there is nowhere else to put it.  Cities outside the region are, for the most part, unwilling to take any of the debris and dispose of it because fears of radiation, even if the debris comes from an area far from Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant and does not exhibit elevated levels of radiation.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_014.jpg
  • Nuclear winter in Fukushima, Prefecture: Street light flashes red to non-existent traffic on a road in the extended nuclear evacuation zone where no one, not even the police, have passed since this heavy snow storm started, Tsushima, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.  Tsushima residents were forced to evacuate their village after a wind-driven radioactive cloud from an explosion at Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant scored a direct hit on this valley.  Estimated annual radiation levels exceed 50 millisieverts, making the village unihabitable for years, maybe even decades as Tsushima is one of most irradiated villages in Fukushima Prefecture.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_015.jpg
  • Sea water floods the port district of Kesenuma, bubbling up from storm drains during the rising tide because the land subsided almost 1 meter (3.28 feet) during the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, making the structures, that were not destroyed during the tsunami, uninhabitable, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_016.jpg
  • The massive tsunami wall at Toni that the tsunami pushed over.  The neighborhood behind it was totally destroyed.  Iwate Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_017.jpg
  • Nuclear winter in Fukushima Prefecture: Not a light on in evacuated house in a village in Iitate-mura, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.  Villages in the extended nuclear evacuation zone still have electric power, evident in the street lamps, but residents may be forbidden from living in their homes for many years or even decades.  Iitate-mura was contaminated by wind-driven radioactive fall-out from the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant.  Iitate-mura sits in an area that annual ambient radiation rates are estimated to be over 20 millisieverts in most areas and others are at over 50 millisieverts annually, the latter of which may indicate that decontamination may take decades.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_018.jpg
  • Sign advises people to escape danger by climbing stairs over three storeys to the top of this massive tsunami wall but it would not have been enough to save their lives.  This wall in Toni, Iwate Prefecture, was breached and then toppled by the 11 March 2011 tsunami, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_019.jpg
  • Once a great pine forest of 70,000 trees, covered the oceanfront at Takata Matsubara until the 11 March 2011 tsunami swept through decimating them all.  Now the sea  under cuts the roots beneath their stumps, giving them an other worldly appearance.  Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_020.jpg
  • Cemtery monument statue, broken when the 11 March 2011 tsunami struck, is propped back up in a vast pile of shattered tombstones in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_021.jpg
  • Nuclear winter in Fukushima, Prefecture: Snow covers a field in the extended nuclear evacuation zone that was left to grow wild the summer before and is not likely to be planted again for many years to come but nature and snow have rendered a deceptively tranquil scene, Iitate-mura, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.  Iitate-mura was contaminated by wind-driven radioactive fall-out from the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant.  Iitate-mura sits in an area that annual ambient radiation rates are estimated to be over 20 millisieverts in most areas and others are at over 50 millisieverts annually, the latter of which may indicate that decontamination may take decades.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_022.jpg
  • Nuclear winter in Fukushima, Prefecture: Main business district of evacuated village in the extended nuclear evacuation zone where no one, not even the police, have passed since this heavy snow storm started, Tsushima, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.  Tsushima residents were forced to evacuate their village after a wind-driven radioactive cloud from an explosion at Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant scored a direct hit on this valley.  Estimated annual radiation levels exceed 50 millisieverts, making the village unihabitable for years, maybe even decades as Tsushima is one of most irradiated villages in Fukushima Prefecture.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_023.jpg
  • Seeds for sale in a shop in the extended nuclear evacuation zone that will never be sold in Tsushima, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.  Tsushima residents were forced to evacuate their village after a wind-driven radioactive cloud from an explosion at Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant scored a direct hit on this valley.  Estimated annual radiation levels exceed 50 millisieverts, making the village unihabitable for years, maybe even decades as Tsushima is one of most irradiated villages in Fukushima Prefecture.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_024.jpg
  • One year after the black tsunami, a handful of strong buildings that withstood the tsunami are all that remain of central Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.  Because these devastated areas are private property and the fact that most port areas subsided almost 1 meter (3.28 feet) because of the earthquake, no grand plan has emerged for the most vulnerable inhabited areas in town devastated by the 11 March 2011 tsunami.
    Delano_Tsunami_1_Year_Later_025.jpg
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