1.4 million people urged to seek shelter as heavy rain triggers floods, landslides in Japan

Stay dry

Floods and landslides...again. Best wishes to all the brave emergency workers. Hopefully people find shelter and stay safe.

When is Japan going to catch some luck for once?

Fighto...

When is Japan going to catch some luck for once?

Probably when they stop building houses at the bottom of steep slopes, stop deforesting those slopes and stop building houses on flood plains and river banks.

What is the covid19/hospitals situation there ? 1.4 milion in a shelter ? Am I reading this right ? Where are these people suppose to go ?

How can people evacuate & Stay Home at the same time!!!?

While they are being told to stay home to slowdown the spread of Delta??

@Mark I have so much mercy again and give you a little hint. Compare, which danger is currently more dangerous, a killing landslide or infecting corona viruses…

Also,the amount of money spent on flood prevention in Kyushu is a fraction of that spent in Honshu-why is that?

Probably when they stop building houses at the bottom of steep slopes, stop deforesting those slopes and stop building houses on flood plains and river banks.

Senor Kipling, I agree about deforestation, but if Japan stops building on flood plains and river banks, there will be no place to build except on steep mountain slopes. 80% of my town, Kumamoto, is on flood plain from one river or another, and I watch our local river level like a hawk during these times (there's now a Website with video stream; I used to have to trek out there). We dodged the bullet this time, with the rain suddenly veering north, but it's happened in my neighborhood before (before my time), and it may well happen again (though the river has been widened and its banks raised).

@n1k1, i assume you don't live in Japan? This literally happen every year during the monsoon season. Millions around the nation get a warning from the government of maybe landslide and flooding. You can just go on a trip to a more dry area and move in a motel for a few days or live at a relative for a bit. You don't necessary has to go to a shelter. And is merely a precaution. Most stay where they are unless the floods are really unbearable. This all past in a few days and the water will subside. We are already use to it. They always exaggerate with the millions when it comes to urging. There is a reason why it's called a non-compulsory report.

Pleased keep in mind that under Japanese law forced evacuations are not permitted. This is in contrast to many other countries that claim to be democracies.

Japanese law does not know the term evacuation order. The terms 避難勧告 and 避難指示, Evacuation advisory and Evacuation instruction, do exist. The latter one is often misinterpreted by English media to mean "evacuation order". As said before, such term doesn't exist and ignoring a evacuation advisory/instruction doesn't carry any penalty.

Probably when they stop building houses at the bottom of steep slopes, stop deforesting those slopes and stop building houses on flood plains and river banks.

The story mentions Atami, and I agree that that was a manmade disaster.

I note that the JMA website has barely been responding all day, probably because it is outsourced to amakudari incapable of running a server that is useful in a disaster.

Yes, I have been checking the JMA earlier today but now non-sensical responses. It's a worry when the JMA site goes down!!!

What hits China is now hitting Japan.

They should deploy the JSDF and employ evacuation immediately.

They had about 25 min of this in the NHK evening news, interrupted by some Covid numbers. But not a single word about Climate change, climate crisis, that we might see more of this in the coming years! Not even much of how, much less why the weather front moved around Japan in a wider context! Yes, there has been heavy rain with mudslides etc before. But it usually during rainy season or bc of a taifun crossing the country, not in the middle of August, a few days after the taifun has passed. Denial and self-pitying, without any will to educate/inform about global facts.

Know of a few people who cant get out of Nagano because of landslides on the chuo highway.

Each person should look at their home and think about what might happen if a lot of water comes. And be ready

Probably when they stop building houses at the bottom of steep slopes, stop deforesting those slopes and stop building houses on flood plains and river banks.

This is absolutely true and the same the world over.

Senor Kipling, I agree about deforestation, but if Japan stops building on flood plains and river banks, there will be no place to build except on steep mountain slopes.

Imaginative thinking is required. If people wish to continue to live on flood plains they must build houses on stilts. Or houses that are anchored but can float. It's already being done in the Netherlands. Also, you can build on the mountain side if you dig out stepped flat areas. Of course this all requires money, proactive planning and good organizational skills. Sadly, covid has revealed that the Japanese government severely lacks the last two necessary skills.

Given the quake issue I would expect the Japanese people to be very good at assessing risk and to have an escape plan when the environment takes a swing at them.

Much of Japan is built on flood plains surrounded by mountains. There isn't much of an alternative. Maybe they need to shift some of the disaster mitigation research in JP universities away from quakes and on to heat, drought, flooding and mudslides.

There are often surprisingly cheap solutions, but you have to be creative and then test them. You need to zone environmental risk and stipulate specifics when building houses in different zones. This should be easy for Japan, given that rules for construction already require quake resilience.

Vague advisories covering large numbers of people are not a great idea. Eventually folk will ignore them. Local authorities need to ensure that residents know exactly what the risks are for their area and property. In the UK when you are buying a property, it is normal to have a survey done on it. This reports issues to potential purchasers. The JP equivalent needs to include environmental risks as a matter of course, if it currently does not. Those renting should be advised of local risks too.

Globally, we all need to manage environmental water better. We need to be able to store more for drinking water and to increase river levels during drought, as firebreaks and to soak dry areas to prevent fires. We need better drainage systems to carry it safely away from homes when there are floods.

Here's a short video of what's going on in Saga and Fukuoka:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmQQTUo8AVA&fbclid=IwAR2tVK7u4sB5RNxLv336960pvxvGHhuu_3e0utXPw5OHYr3FqRXId89uJhQ

When the last of the summer Arctic Sea Ice melts in September 2025 or 2026 the operations of the Jetstream will be messed with to such a degree that it might rain this hard for 3 months in Japan not just a week. So get ready for this.

Up till then there will be slow and gradual changes like we are seeing in the past few months. When it happens though the changes will start happening at several times the speed. Japan burns a lot of coal so is a large part of the problem.

GBR48

Globally, we all need to manage environmental water better. We need to be able to store more for drinking water and to increase river levels during drought, as firebreaks and to soak dry areas to prevent fires. We need better drainage systems to carry it safely away from homes when there are floods.

More importantly globally we need to manage climate change better by decreasing the amount of CO2 we pump into the environment.

More importantly globally we need to manage climate change better by decreasing the amount of CO2 we pump into the environment.

That is a bit of a myth perpetrated by the United Nations IPCC and others. What they do not tell you is that there is no possibility of mitigation anymore. In fact the last chance for it died out in the early to mid 70s. They do not want you to panic and they are contractually bound not to promote reduction of economic activity.

The weather we get now was determined by emissions from 20 years ago. CO2 is an issue but so are methane and nitrous oxide and several other gases. There is a large blanket of surplus greenhouse gases now so our planet is now creating its own emissions. This is called a feedback loop. One of 6 major feedback loops in fact.

So even if man made emissions were halted today the weather for the next 3 or 4 decades is pretty much locked in. Let's keep a bit closer to the facts and to reality?

@Mr Kipling

Probably when they stop building houses at the bottom of steep slopes, stop deforesting those slopes and stop building houses on flood plains and river banks.

80% of Japan is mountainous. There is very little flat usable land not on flood plains available to build on in Japan. So, the populations has pushed further out to precarious areas. All the major metropolitan areas are built on flatter more useable land, but many have flood issues.

michaelqtodd

More importantly globally we need to manage climate change better by decreasing the amount of CO2 we pump into the environment.

That is a bit of a myth perpetrated by the United Nations IPCC and others. What they do not tell you is that there is no possibility of mitigation anymore. In fact the last chance for it died out in the early to mid 70s.

Not true, there are always things we can do. This isn't a binary thing, it has degrees and if you had actually read the latest IPCC report, you can see the different outcomes based on what we do now as a starting point.

Get ready for climate deniers to change their tune to "nothing can be done"-ers.

They do not want you to panic and they are contractually bound not to promote reduction of economic activity.

As we have seen with the response to the covid pandemic, mitigation is a lot more financially beneficial than doing nothing.

I read the report. The reality is that things are at least 10 times as bad as anybody in that ICCC would have you believe. I have been involved in this stuff for 48 years. I know hundreds of climate experts who are not paid off by the ICC or some activist group. They all say the same thing. 2026 is when the music stops. The time to act on emission reductions was 1974. You can join our Facebook groups and read some actual facts if you wish

@ michaelqtodd you are right!:

"The reality is that things are at least 10 times as bad"

their land will be stubble in the future: as predicted by Deguchi Onisaburo (1871-1948) 

"the present Tokyo will not last forever.'

michaelqtodd

The time to act on emission reductions was 1974.

I agree. Which means we need to take more drastic action now.

yayo90

Chances of dying in a landslide are much, much higher than dying from or with corona.

Especially if you are vaccinated.

michaelqtodd

They all say the same thing. 2026 is when the music stops. The time to act on emission reductions was 1974. You can join our Facebook groups and read some actual facts if you wish

Why would I want to join your Facebook group where all you talk about is what you can't do?