Chemical Aftermath: Contamination and Cleanup Following the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

followed the unfolding Tokohu disaster from their respective offices in Nagano, Japan, and Portland, Oregon.To form a picture of the damage and begin to understand how chemical contaminants and their potential health hazards are being handled after the tsunami, Bird visited the hard-hit prefectures of Ibaraki, Iwate, and Miyagi, while Grossman researched company and chemical information and how such issues are handled in the United States.T hirty days after the most powerful earthquake and tsunami in Japan's recorded history struck the northeastern coast of that country's main island, the city of Ishinomaki was a scene of devastation.The busy manufacturing and industrial port town in Miyagi Prefecture, 1 close to the epicenter of the quake, had suffered some of the worst damage of any community in the Tohoku region.Pulverized houses, skeletons of factories, and mountains of debris lined the dusty streets.Crumpled cars were tossed across graveyards, broken shipping containers strewn across fields.Ruptured oil tanks leaked glossy black liquid, bags of agrochemicals sat in iridescent puddles, and the doors to a shed labeled A man makes his way through the devastated town of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, March 2011.