VT HCR226

Vermont General Assembly formally remembers the March 11, 2011 "Great East Japan Earthquake," a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that lasted six minutes and was the largest ever recorded in Japan and fourth-largest globally since 1900

The earthquake triggered a tsunami with waves over 100 feet high that inundated more than 200 square miles of coastal land, resulting in 19,759 deaths, 2,553 missing persons, and 6,242 injuries

The disasters caused three nuclear reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, forcing evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents

Estimated financial cost exceeded $300 billion, possibly the costliest natural disaster in modern history

Secretary of State directed to send copies of the resolution to Consul General of Japan Seiichiro Takahashi in Boston and to Dr. Masatoshi and Mrs. Reiko Kida in recognition of their decades of work strengthening Japan-Vermont relations