PORTLAND, Oregon: A huge floating dock cast adrift by Japan’s killer tsunami has washed up on an Oregon beach, believed to be the biggest pieces of flotsam to make landfall on the US West Coast so far.
The 66-foot long rectangular structure, made of concrete and metal, was spotted floating off the coast on Monday, and then washed in with the high tide on Agate beach, 160 km southwest of Portland.
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department contacted Japanese diplomats, who confirmed that it was from the March 11, 2011 tsunami, and had drifted 8,850 km across the Pacific over the last 15 months. Hirofumi Murabayashi, deputy consul general at Japan’s consulate in Portland, said: “Four floating docks were washed away by the tsunami. This is one of them.
