. >> narrator: yoshio ichida wanted to save his boat. he was racing straight into the biggest tsunami waves to strike japan in hundreds of years, hoping to crest them before they broke. >> (translated): they were like mountains. we went over three waves that came directly from the east. they were about 15 meters high. it was like this. >> narrator: the biggest of the waves was more than 40 feet high and traveling at over 100 miles an hour. >> (translated): when i looked back to shore, there was a strange ocean mist. i knew something bad was happening. >> narrator: at the nuclear plant, a worker was filming as his co-workers fled to higher ground. at 3:35 pm, the biggest of the waves struck. it was more than twice the height of the plant's seawall. it's now known that tepco had been warned by a government committee of scientists in 2009 that its tsunami defenses were inadequate. the company says it was still reviewing the matter when the disaster happened. now, the tsunami flooded the nuclear plant. >> (translated): the port area was tras