This finding is similar to observations in Thailand, where a seawall at Patong Beach caused a splash-up of the tsunami wave and buildings behind it only suffered modest structural damages.

这个发现和在泰国观察到的是相似的，在那一个在巴东海滩的防波堤引起了一个海啸波的溅起，并且其后的建筑物只受到了适度的结构破坏。

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The earthquake crumbled the mountainsides surrounding Beichuan's county seat, burying a third of it in a wave of boulders that crushed buses and burst holes through buildings.

地震令北川县城周围的山体崩裂，从天而降的巨石碾碎了汽车，将建筑物砸得千疮百孔，并掩埋了三分之一的县城。

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Youka Ishi, who works at a town office two miles from the Miyagi Prefecture coast, said that roughly 2,700 buildings closer to the water "have been swallowed by the wave, and there is nothing left."

距宫城县(Miyagi Prefecture)海岸两海里处市区办公室工作人员Youka Ishi说，近水处约2千7百栋楼房被巨浪席卷，成为一片白地。

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If you doubt me, come to midtown Manhattan during an August heat wave and feel the blast of hot air from vents on buildings and the street.

CNN: Why we should expect more weather disasters

The catch is that property developers are turning the decrepit buildings, abandoned when most businesses fled a crime-wave for the northern suburbs in the early 1990s, into swanky apartment blocks, and property prices have been rocketing.

ECONOMIST: Struggling to cope with too many people

In one of the worst hit regions, Indonesia's Banda Aceh still bears scars from the wave -- you see it in the twisted metal, in the gutted buildings and the naked foundations where homes once stood.

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