Google Street View does Fukushima

[This is pretty interesting. Google Street View has recently added imagery of the areas close to Fukushima power plant that were evacuated, and are still deserted two years after the earthquake.

[url=Google Maps]Fishing boats](Google Lat Long: Imagery on Google Maps of Fukushima Exclusion Zone Town Namie-machi), cars and piles of debris still lie in the fields where they were washed by the tsunami.

There are panoramas inside damaged buildings, too, such as this school (click the orange dots).

I tried to edit to fix that link but the SDMB server kept crapping out and my 5 minutes was up by the time it went through.

Here’s that link again.

Check out all the stuff along this road. And the same spot soon after the tsunami, complete with a whole house straddling the road. :frowning:

Fascinating stuff - but catastrophic for the poor folk having to deal with it.

I noticed a few weeks ago that you could not drag the street view guy near the actual reactor itself. Some folks suggested that street view guy was declining to be irradiated, thank you very much.

I noticed three men near the spot linked in the OP. They are standing at the side of the road next to what appears to be a small shrine with offerings around it. Is this a memorial for the victims?

It’s amazing to see major farm equipment crumpled up like a tinfoil ball.

Also, a lot of fencing along the road is flattened, of course. But it appears to be bent towards the shoreline, not away from it as I expected. Was it bent first away from the shore by the incoming tsunami, and then back towards the shore by the backwash?

I hadn’t noticed the shrine. I saw the three men but I assumed they were just doing clean-up work, as they have hi-vis clothing and appear to be holding survey poles or something.

As for the fences, I would guess that the outflow of water had more debris in it than the initial inward rush, so would maybe do more damage?