The earthquake and tsunami hit a 2100 km of coast stretching from the island of Hokkaido in the north to Wakayama Prefecture south of Osaka.

The coastal towns of Rikusentakata, Minamisanriku, Kuji, Ofunato, Iwaki, Soma, Minamisoma, Kesennuma, Fukushima, Onagawa and Tagajo have been almost completely washed away, with a high death toll.

The tsunami wave reached heights in excess of 10 metres and swept several kilometres inland. 

The number of dead is officially 8133 dead and 12,272 missing, although the number is expected to rise as more towns are accessed by emergency crews.

More than 80,000 buildings have been damaged and nearly 5000 have been destroyed, but again the number is expected to rise.

The earthquake has also triggered multiple fires throughout a number of industrial areas north of Tokyo, including a fire at the Cosmo oil refinery in Ichihara and another at an industrial area in Yokohama’s Isogo region. A total of 80 separate fires were reported in northern prefectures of Fukushima, Sendai, Iwate and Ibaraki after gas lines exploded.

Many sections of the Tohoku Expressway serving northern Japan were severely damaged and all roads out of Tokyo towards quake-damaged areas were closed to all except emergency vehicles.

Sendai airport was flooded by the tsunami damaging cars, trucks, buses and aircraft while leaving a thick coating of mud over the runways and terminal building. At the one-year-old Ibaraki Airport, Omitama, a large section of the main terminal ceiling collapsed.

Estimated losses to Japan’s industrial output due to the disruption case by the earthquake and tsunami range between ¥10- ¥16 trillion ($128 billion-$205 billion), more than one-and-a-half times the losses of the 1995 Kobe earthquake.