Video: Japanese tsunami survivor's football turns up in Alaska Last year's tsunami disaster, which claimed around 19,000 lives, swept away vast swathes of communities, including personal belongings, entire homes, boats and cars. Many of these items have formed giant floating islands of debris which are slowly crossing the Pacific Ocean and heading towards the west coast of the United States, with an array of items already being discovered. Much of the debris is expected to hit Alaska, Canada, Washington and Oregon between 2013 and 2014, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency in the United States. However, a number of items are arriving already, among them the Ryou-Un Maru, an abandoned fishing vessel which travelled more than 7,200km from Japan before it was found drifting off Alaska.