World News Engine: Japan's tsunami

Japan's tsunami

Three weeks after Japan's massive tsunami swamped this once-bustling airport, US airmen working to restore it said commercial flights could soon resume.

Hundreds of cars, several planes and even houses were washed onto the runway at Sendai International Airport when the huge waves of March 11 engulfed the country's northeast coast.

The terminal building was flooded and fires erupted in the car park and in aircraft hangars.

Passengers were left stranded on the upper floors for two days, and staff were forced to flee to the roof of an administrative building.

CCTV footage posted on video sharing site YouTube, showing the debris-cluttered waters swallowing up the runway, has been watched more than 17 million times and become one of the defining images of the nation's tragedy.

With roads washed away or impassable, the crippling of the airport badly hampered relief efforts.

Supplies and fuel could not get to the area where 28,000 people are dead or missing, leaving rescue teams unable to work in some of the hardest-hit towns.

That was where the US air force came in.

Colonel Robert Toth, commander of the 353rd Special Operations Group, said his team are experts in setting up or fixing airfields in extreme conditions.Japan's Subnational Governments in International Affairs

"When the tsunami rolled into Sendai it covered the airport in over 10 feet (three metres) of water and much debris," he said.

"When we did aerial surveys of the airport on March 13 the entire airfield was still covered in around seven feet of water and debris, including hundreds of cars, trees, houses and aeroplanes which made the runway inaccessible.
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"What we saw at the airfield I don't think you can ever imagine. It was truly devastating and really gave you a perspective of the force that came through the airport that day.

"I've seen a lot of devastation after large hurricanes and even in combat, but none of it compares to what we saw when we went in."

Toth's elite team drove to the airport in all-terrain Humvees and began clearing away the debris, assisted by Japanese workers.

Major John Traxler, who leads the team on the ground, said even his experience establishing airfields in war zones such as Afghanistan did not prepare him for the size of the task he and his men faced.

"When we got here it was initially very frightening because the level of debris, equipment and vehicles on this runway were more than we had planned," he said.

"We brought as many snow shovels and brooms as we could and we came here ready to manually push it off; thank God the Japanese came in force and did the bulk of the load so that we could focus on setting up the runway."

Once they had cleared a 1,000-metre landing strip they were able to bring in the C-130 Hercules transport plane, which allowed them to carry in forklift trucks, vastly speeding up the process of clearing.

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