Strangers caught on tape rescuing each other from tsunami

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March 17, 2011 | 214 Views

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A Tohoku Broadcast Corporation reporter was in a taxi driving through the city of Sendai on Friday (March 11) when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck triggering a massive tsunami across much of northern Japan.

In a documentary video aired on Wednesday (March 16), the reporter is seen running from his taxi as he senses the rising tide and chaos on the road.

After running for several minutes looking for higher ground, he and several other passers-by finally find an entrance to a three storey office building just as the waves start gaining momentum.

Finding safety at last from the rapidly rising waters, they look out at the ruined city before them and spot several other survivors, including a man with two children clinging to the rooftops of several cars piled up one upon the other.

Using a fire hose found in the building, they all get together to rescue the helpless strangers.

A woman is the first to be hauled up, shivering as temperatures fall and it begins to snow.

Stopping occasionally as aftershocks shake the city, it takes several people at least one hour to rescue a traumatised woman.

"Thank you, thank you, I thought I was going to die," she tells the TBC reporter once on the top floor balcony.

One by one the strangers pull to safety those stranded on top of trees or floating debris as the city sky starts to darken with smoke and nightfall.

Three hour after the tsunami struck the father and two children are rescued, cold and wet but happy to be alive.

"I am just glad my children were saved," said the man as night descended upon the city and darkened their shelter.

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