Google is announcing another batch of fresh Street View imagery, this time coming from Japan.
More specifically, Namie-machi, a small city in Fukushima Prefecture that’s in the Fukushima exclusion zone. That means that although years have passed since the nuclear accident that occurred as a result of the great earthquake of 2011, Namie-machi’s residents are still unable to return to their city.
And that affects 21,000 people, according to a Google blog post.
Google’s Street View team combed through the deserted town, and what you have is some more stunning imagery from a natural disaster. Back in December of 2011, Google unveiled Street View imagery of the earthquake and tsunami-torn northeastern coast of Japan.
Here’s the kind of stuff you’ll see:
Namie-machi mayor Tamotsu Baba explains the above image:
This image shows an area located one kilometer inland from the Pacific Ocean. In the distance you can see Ukedo Elementary School. Nearby Ukedo Harbor once proudly boasted 140 fishing boats and 500 buildings, but suffered some of the worst tsunami damage. After being set off-limits, we have not been able to clean up the wreckage on the side of the road, including the many fishing boats that were washed several kilometers inland.
Baba goes on to heartbreakingly convey that some people just want to see the state of their home.
“Many of the displaced townspeople have asked to see the current state of their city, and there are surely many people around the world who want a better sense of how the nuclear incident affected surrounding communities.”
You can start looking around Namie-machi today.
