Then and now photos capture desolate scenes 5 years after Japan tsunami wiped away towns

By Katy Galimberti, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

March 11,2016; 9:05PM,EST

 

 

Five years ago, Japan was just comprehending the immediate aftermath of an earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people.
Another 2,000 people were considered missing and are presumed dead.
On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck offshore near Japan. Less than an hour later, colossal waves from the resulting tsunami poured into the country's northeast coast.
Buildings and homes were decimated, turning towns into piles of rubble. At least 332,395 buildings were destroyed or damaged.

Five-year anniversary of Japan's worst earthquake and tsunami

Roughly 100,000 people are still waiting to return to their homes, according to Al Jazeera.
In Fukushima, damage to the nuclear power plant created a radioactive disaster. Three units melted after not receiving the necessary coolant as the station lost power.
Some neighborhoods are still reduced to a plot of dirt as work to rebuild is underway. The government expects to open all evacuated areas, outside of the nuclear plant zone, by next year.
In this March 27, 2011, file photo, a man walks through the destroyed neighborhood below Weather Hill in Natori, Japan. Koji Sasahara, photographer. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)
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In this combination photo, a Japanese survivor of the earthquake and tsunami rides his bicycle through the leveled city of Minamisanriku, Japan, on March 15, 2011, top, a car drives through the same spot on Feb. 23, 2012, center, and trucks and cars drive through the same area on Saturday, March 5, 2016. Five years after the disaster, construction work is clearly underway but far from done. Rebuilt roads stretch to the horizon between still largely vacant expanses. It is a massive undertaking to raise the ground level of entire neighborhoods, to better protect them from inundation, before rebuilding from scratch. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder and Eugene Hoshiko)
In this combination photo, a Japanese survivor of the earthquake and tsunami rides his bicycle through the leveled city of Minamisanriku, Japan, on March 15, 2011, top, a car drives through the same spot on Feb. 23, 2012, center, and trucks and cars drive through the same area on Saturday, March 5, 2016. Five years after the disaster, construction work is clearly underway but far from done. Rebuilt roads stretch to the horizon between still largely vacant expanses. It is a massive undertaking to raise the ground level of entire neighborhoods, to better protect them from inundation, before rebuilding from scratch. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder and Eugene Hoshiko)
In this combination photo, two people walk along a street in a residential neighborhood in Onagawa, northeastern Japan, on March 19, 2011, top, eight days after the March 11 tsunami, two people walk on the same spot on Feb. 22, 2012, center, and a stream of trucks go through the same area on Saturday, March 5, 2016. Five years after the disaster, construction work is clearly underway but far from done. Rebuilt roads stretch to the horizon between still largely vacant expanses. It is a massive undertaking to raise the ground level of entire neighborhoods, to better protect them from inundation, before rebuilding from scratch. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder and Eugene Hoshiko)