The eastern part of Japan has again been struck by record-setting heavy rain. In areas previously hit by Typhoon No. 19, there was a succession of river flooding and landslides, causing enormous damage over these locations. The central and local governments should do everything in their power to rehabilitate these areas.
Half of the people who died in Chiba and Fukushima prefectures due to the latest disaster are believed to have perished inside their cars -- for example, when their vehicles were inundated as they made their way toward other locations.
In the town of Chonan, Chiba Prefecture, an 81-year-old man drove along a road to pick up his wife, and he died when the road flooded. A 54-year-old man from the town of Nagara in the prefecture was swept away by a swollen river while driving to the day nursery that was taking care of his child.
It is safe to say that these cases illustrate the dangers involved in driving cars in heavy rain.
A passenger car may suffer a decline in its brake performance while traveling on a road submerged more than 10 centimeters deep, and its engine may die if the road is submerged 30 to 50 centimeters deep. If flooding swells along a road, the door to a car will not open, making it impossible to escape from the vehicle. Attention needs to be paid to such cases.
In Typhoon No. 19 as well, dozens of people lost their lives while inside cars. As a general rule, the Cabinet Office has urged the public to walk to evacuation sites at the time of a disaster. It is necessary to take shelter even slightly earlier, before rain becomes heavier.
In Chiba Prefecture, houses collapsed due to landslides, resulting in fatalities. None of the stricken places had been designated as hazard areas prone to disasters involving the movement of sediment, where adequate preparations need to be made for residents' evacuation.
A case in point is the percentage of zones designated as hazard areas among dangerous locations prone to disasters caused by the movement of sediment. The figure for Chiba Prefecture is only in the 30 percent range, much lower than the national average. Questions persist as to whether sufficient preparations were made for a sediment-related disaster. It is vital to quickly designate dangerous spots as hazard areas and make these places thoroughly known to the public.
The eastern part of the country, mainly Chiba Prefecture, has been hit by typhoons No. 15 and 19, as well as record-setting torrential rain that accompanied the most recent typhoon, No. 21. All this has left the region even more seriously damaged.
Many disaster-hit people have been struck by heavy rains just as they finish restoration work. They appear to be finding it difficult to clear up the mess of their damaged homes as smoothly as they wish. There are concerns about their mounting fatigue. Given this, it is indispensable to secure personnel in charge of supporting disaster victims, including volunteers.
Many agricultural facilities have been destroyed, too. The typhoons hit the harvest season, and the amount of damage suffered by the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries in the stricken areas is estimated to exceed a total of 170 billion yen nationwide. Efforts should be made to rebuild the farmers' lives, such as extending greater subsidies aimed at recovering their facilities.
The series of heavy rains has not caused floods over a wide area along large rivers in Tokyo. For the first time, however, five ward offices in the Koto district temporarily considered executing plans to evacuate a maximum of about 2.5 million residents to distant locations.
Evacuating a large number of residents entails such difficulties as securing means of transportation. It is vital to quickly explore all problems involved in that endeavor.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 29, 2019)
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