A major earthquake (the great Tohoku earthquake, Mw = 9) striked at 2:46 pm a brewery located in the indutrial district of the port of Sendai. Brewing and bottling facilities were put in safe condition and the 129 employees present on-site, as well as the 350 visitors of the tasting center and employees of the neighboring warehouses, took shelter on the roof of the administrative building as a tsunami alert has been triggered at 2:51 pm. At 3:27 pm, the first tsunami waves (7 to 8 meters of run up) flooded the site on 1 to 5 meters. Employees and visitors spent the night on the roof before being evacuated the next morning. The earthquake caused the collapse of 4 of the 15 silos, each filled with 400 cubic meters of beer. The tsunami flooded the building storing cans and bottles which were swept away on several kilometers across the industrial district bordering the site, the stock of raw materials (malt and hops) was also flooded. The bottling lines and waste water treatment station were damaged by seawater. The site was cleaned for 2 months by the employees, the pieces of broken glass bottle being picked by hand one by one. The brewery restarted more than 5 months after the disaster, but reached its full capacity only 15 months later. The amount of damage was estimated at 51 million of euros (2011). The operator improved the seismic resistance of buildings and storage silos, and made available a stock of food relief.