What's It Like To Drive Through A Tsunami?

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: March 19th, 2011

This driver had the bad luck of being on a coastal road in Japan when the tsunami hit. He had the good luck to make it through alive. And he had the amazing luck to have a video camera going while it happened, capturing the tsunami crashing into road and car.

The driver says he had no choice but to keep going: “When I turned the corner I could see the wall of water. At that moment I could do nothing else but keep driving,” London’s Telegraph quotes him.

“Water came up and the car was floating in the water. I was panicked, the water was probably two meters high. If I came out of the car I thought I would be caught in the water as well so I thought I would wait until it had come down.”

#BertelSchmitt #Earthquake #Japan #Tsunami

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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9 of 15 comments

ChuckR on Mar 19, 2011

What a lucky man. Its fortunate that car floated as well as an old VW Bug. Amazing video.

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- OldandSlow on Mar 19, 2011
  
  Thank goodness for small, light weight vehicles - which seem to be popular in Japan.
  
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MarcKyle64 on Mar 19, 2011

From :22 to :29 made me think he was about to "Taste The Rainbow"!

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Jimal on Mar 19, 2011

"While other car blogs interrupt their reporting to show gratuitous pictures from the massive earthquake in Japan, TTAC stays on topic. Even in this confused state, there are better sources for real-time information on the catastrophe in Japan than armchair car bloggers." - Bertil Schmitt Just sayin'

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- Sitting@home on Mar 19, 2011
  
  Yes, but this is on topic because this guy would have been able continue on his journey uninterrupted if only those selfish, greedy car manufacturers had thought to put tsunami protection in their vehicles rather than skimping to increase profits. If Ray LaHood can make us all have back-up cameras because a few distracted soccer moms each year run over their kids, and force us to have explosives a few inches from our faces because some rednecks still refuse to buckle up, then you bet he'll be able to mandate automated inflatable buoyancy devices for all so that no little innocent children again get washed away when a 9.0 offshore earthquake strikes within 200 miles and you just happen to be driving along a sea-level coastal road.
  
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- Windswords on Mar 19, 2011
  
  sitting@home, So are you saying that everyone who refuses to buckle up is a "redneck", or that all "rednecks" refuse to buckle up? And if someone in the state of Massachusetts doesn't buckle up then he is a "redneck" also? Just trying to understand what you are getting at here.
  
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- Jimal on Mar 19, 2011
  
  @sitting@home, What I am saying is that just because there is a car in the video doesn't necessarily make this a car video and that when you make grandiose blanket statements taking a swipe at other websites for their lack of focus, sometimes it comes back to bite you in the arse.
  
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- Sitting@home on Mar 19, 2011
  
  @windsworth; There was recently an article about Ford getting sued because two unbelted drunk guys got killed when they crashed their truck and the mom blamed Ford for not using tempered glass, and another about the DOT mandating back-up cameras. I'm not saying all rednecks are unbelted or all unbelted people are rednecks or all soccer moms are inattentive, I'm saying there are sometimes a few accidents that happen that cause a policy change that affects us all. @jimal; I agree with you, but the conversation had drifted to what would be the best vehicle to survive such an event and my reply was meant to be a sarcastic continuation of that.
  
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Dadude53 on Mar 19, 2011

Tough.And under all circumstances keep the camera running!

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