It wasn’t though because of the coastal geography, part of the tsunami squeezed around the town and slammed into them from behind, killing both of them. Kudo-san told us that a teacher and a student walked to the edge of the hilltop school grounds where we stood to watch the approaching tsunami from what they thought was a safe spot. This was one of the town’s designated shelter spots, and preparations were underway for the next day’s graduation ceremony. At one school, the clock was frozen at 2:48 p.m., the moment the magnitude 9.0 quake reached Minamisanriku. Next we traveled to the high ground above the town where three of its public schools are located. For now, the arrangement is that the prefectural government will maintain the building for 20 years and then its fate will be decided. The Miyagi Prefectural government has a different view it would like to keep the building’s shell standing as a memorial and reminder of what happened. Among those who survived was the town’s mayor, and among the dead was Miki Endo, 25, a Disaster Prevention Center employee who heroically continued to broadcast tsunami warnings over the town’s loudspeaker system until she was swept away by the tsunami.Ī bitter reminder to townspeople of the losses their families suffered, they would like to see the scaffolding torn down, Kudo-san told us. He made the right decision of the 50 or so town hall employees who reached the rooftop, only 10 survived when the tsunami tore through it. When the tsunami warning sounded, Kudo-san told us he saw workers at the nearby town hall flee to the three-story building, but he decided that it would be wiser to get to higher ground. The shell of the former Disaster Prevention Center.ĭirectly beyond the road that bisected the construction zone stood the rust-colored skeleton of a building, the city’s former Disaster Prevention Center. Yet that didn’t matter because his family was intact, unlike so many others. He and his family are among the 9,746 evacuees from Minamisanriku, and the close to 3,100 who are still in temporary housing.

A former insurance company worker, Kudo-san, 44, told us that he considers himself lucky: he, his wife, and four children were all spared when over 1,200 other townspeople were not. Our guide, Kudo-san, met us at the the community center where our retreat was held, and started with a wrenching video and overview of what had happened. What had that deadly wave, rising at points as high as 30 feet, wrought, and what was being built in its place? I had read accounts of the tsunami in which survivors described seeing “a white line” far out on the bay, which moments later had transformed into a giant wall of destruction rushing toward them. I wanted to learn more about the effects of the disaster that left nearly 22,000 dead or missing and see with my own eyes the state of the ongoing reconstruction. They were so positive, and so alive that it was hard to viscerally grasp the scope of the natural disaster that had spawned some of their ventures.

Until then we had been immersed in brainstorming ways to grow the organizations of a group of dedicated and inspiring social entrepreneurs. On my last day in Minamisanriku, a small group of us from World in Tohoku signed up for a tour of the town’s downtown coastal area, which was decimated by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.

Miki endo being washed away