Strong typhoons have approached and made landfall on the Japanese archipelago one after another. To save lives, it is important to make a habit of quick evacuation.
Large, powerful Typhoon No. 10 engulfed the entire Kyushu region in a storm zone and caused strong wind and heavy rain. Landslides and damage to houses have occurred and caused casualties. Up to about 650,000 households have suffered power failures. The central and local governments are urged to promptly grasp the actual situation of the damage.
Predicting that the typhoon would be one of the strongest in the country's history, the Japan Meteorological Agency held a number of press conferences four days before its approach to Kyushu, describing it as an "emergency-warning-class disaster" and calling for "the highest level of vigilance." The tactic was apparently aimed at raising residents' sense of crisis.
Local governments also issued evacuation instructions and advisories at an early stage, targeting more than 7.7 million people in Kyushu's seven prefectures. It is said that nearly 200,000 people stayed at evacuation centers. Frequent dissemination of information may have spurred residents to evacuate.
Problems remained as to how to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. As local governments have limited the number of evacuees at shelters to prevent crowded situations, there have been many cases in which local residents could not be housed in evacuation centers. The city of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, has increased the number of evacuation centers by 14 to 64, but 14 of them were fully packed.
It is not known when the spread of the coronavirus will be brought under control, and a similar situation is expected to continue in the future. Local governments need to devise measures so that residents can evacuate smoothly.
The Miyazaki city government has made public on its website the conditions of the evacuation centers. Residents can check vacancies at shelters, which is thought to be effective in helping them choose where to evacuate.
Some local governments have tried to disperse evacuations. The city of Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, severely damaged by the torrential rain that struck Kyushu in July, evacuated about 30 residents to Kumamoto City, about 90 kilometers away, using large buses.
Many hotels were filled with evacuees. Efforts should be facilitated, such as local governments concluding agreements with hotels and ryokan inns to use the facilities as shelters.
Typhoon No. 10 is said to have gained strength because of rising sea surface temperatures. In August, the southern sea of Japan was covered by a high-pressure system in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in increased amounts of solar radiation. The typhoon is believed to have intensified due to the generation of a large amount of water vapor.
Two years ago, Typhoon No. 21 registered a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 58.1 meters per second when it hit the Kansai Airport island. When Typhoon No. 15 hit Chiba City last year, the maximum wind velocity was 57.5 meters per second. It is essential to remain vigilant in various parts of the country from now on.
This time, the course and scale of the typhoon could be predicted to some extent. However, some phenomena, such as line-shaped rain systems that caused the heavy rain in Kyushu, are difficult to predict due to their rapid development.
It is vital to be thorough about the basics of preventing disasters -- such as checking hazard maps for the degree of danger in your area and paying attention to evacuation information -- on a daily basis.
-- The original Japanese article appeared in The Yomiuri Shimbun on Sept. 9, 2020.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
