The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© KYODOResidents grow weary over prolonged power cuts in Chiba Prefecture
CHIBA©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© KYODO
29 Comments
Login to comment
daito_hak
TEPCO blatantly lying? Hum, who is surprised.
But that's not the worst thing here. The worst thing is that the country is not prepared for major natural disasters in contrary to common beliefs. Imagine the mess it would be if a major earthquake hits the region?
The Avenger
Does Tepco have proper contingency plans for anything at all?.
They do. Remember the scheduled blackouts after 311? As though they knew it was coming.
Disillusioned
Restoring essential utilities? Yeah, right! Where are all the generators and water trucks to give these people support before even more people die? If the power outage was in Kasumigaseki the streets would be lined with truck generators.
smithinjapan
"TEPCO, which services the area, initially sought to restore power to everyone by Wednesday, but now has no specific timeframe for a full resumption after being criticized for giving what turned out to be an inaccurate prediction."
Hmmm... where have I heard this before. Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice...
Get ready for another government bailout for TEPCO in order to clean up this mess, and another CEO fleeing for the hills and citing "tummy trouble".
Bugle Boy of Company B
I can imagine! Government should be shipping in portable generators. They aren't hard to get running and give people at least a bit of normalcy.
vanityofvanities
Do no blame TEPCO very much. They are working hard to restore. In Japan, natural disasters happen in large scales beyond people's imaginations. Winds blowing over 50 k.m. per second in the metropolitan areas is what nobody expected.
Spitfire
Vanity,
They (TEPCO) have had enough of our money over the years to prepare for any emergency.TEPCO are the literal meaning of 'Pigs at the Trough.'TEPCO is the epitome of what is wrong in Japan.
In Japan everything is a boys' own club.
TrevorPeace
Lots of complaints, with very few people understanding that this type of catastrophe isn't limited to Japan. I thought the Japanese people were patient. Tepco has only so many linemen. I found Abe's comment that his cabinet members should do everything possible to restore power to be the most hilariously stupid thing that could come from his mouth. What will those suits do??? Climb a pole? Bring out hand-pumps for water lines?
Jeez!
quercetum
Underground utility lines and cables? Luckily the weather has cooled today. To be without AC at 35 degrees poses danger.
gogogo
Tepco are so illprepared for natural disasters. Th government needs to fine them for not have services on.
John Beara
Why blaming Tepco? They are fixing a mess made from mother nature. Why not cutting some trees that stand too close from these electric poles? That'b a good idea
Richard Burgan
Being without electricty for several days is very difficult. Not having a roof or running water or cell service makes it even more unpleasant. Now is the time to look at the kinds of things that can happen and prepare yourself before it happens in the future. People know that typhoons, earthquakes, heavy rain, mudslides, and so on happen in Japan. So, get prepared, prepare your family. Look at your roof, can it stand high winds, if not fix it so it can. What happens if the power goes off for a week? How will you charge your cell phone? Get an alternate source of power in case of emergency. Generators, solar panels, backup batteries, car accessory chargers are cheap these days. Don't just wait for he city to send out people to help you, help yourself. That's the idea of self reliance, it's how you avoid being a burden on others and keep your family safe. This is certainly lacking in Japan. But that can change.
Flute
@zichi
If I remember correctly the underground is mostly owned by the government in Japan so it should not be a problem to have no rental charge if the said government choose not to in exchange of diminution of risk of having poles, cables, ... falling over buildings, people, cars, ... every now and then.
@John Beara
Why not leaving the tree alone ? They did nothing bad and they were there before the pole. Do you really believe typhoon need trees to mess up electric pole ? Sorry to disappoint you but it is not the case.
@vanityofvanities
People are not blaming the people really doing the job. Everyone knows they are working their ass off. They blame Tepco as the ones in the company which are in power to make decision and are paid to foresee this kind of event and have emergency plan ready.
I think most of the people here find it perfectly expectable, not as a every year one thought. It is not the first time that kind hit Japan and climatologist and meteorologist are pretty clear there number are going to increase. So, there is something wrong with management of crisis, like providing generators for critical places : water pumping system, evacuation center and other collective place where people can gather to have aircon/ventilator/heater in case the electricity is cut during heat/cold wave, ...
There is something wrong with the preparation for natural disasters as Japan knows it have heavy risk of it. I am kind of wondering, since they really do natural disaster drills, if by any chance perhaps Japan is just trying to get ready for the big one hitting Tokyo and preparation for smaller sized disasters is just not so well done.
Wallace Fred
Ladies and gentlemen, this is how you tell the rot in the system has reached the point of no return. Take note, utility taxes going up in October.
Rizdown
I thought Japan was well-prepared for disasters... Japanese people keep telling me that.
It seems that it's not true.
I saw on TV that elderly people in care-homes have been suffering terribly.
kohakuebisu
Just saying, but if anyone is shopping for a family car, the big hybrid vans made by Toyota, the Estima and Alphard, have a 1500W inverter as standard. They've been on sale for fifteen years, so you can get a cheap one second hand. 1500W should be enough to run some lights, some fans, recharge your phones, run your router and wifi, and run a laptop. For cooking, you're better off using gas cassettes, which you should have in anyway in preparation for an earthquake. We've actually used our car as a generator post earthquake to run a vacuum cleaner. Pretty much every single item of crockery we had ended up smashed on the floor, so it was a huge help to us.
Obviously running your car all day will empty your tank, but a few hours in the evening shouldn't make too much of a dent. You could just buy a standalone generator of course, and siphon fuel out of your car, but the hybrid system in the van will also give you better fuel economy in normal times. You get two for the price of one.
mmwkdw
Doesn't this Country have transportable Generators for Key Utilities ?
I guess if you're going to be living out in the Countryside, it may be worth buying your own Solar Power kit and/or backup generator.
The Government has failed these local Communities - it could have at least provided something for them.
The Avenger
Japan needs a Nipponese version of FEMA.
theFu
If you live in a place prone to disasters, seems like being prepared would be smart.
Who doesn't properly prepare for typhoons in advance with water, food, medications, extra batteries, generator, extra fuel, camping gear all ready and tested? We expected to be without power/water for 2-3 weeks.
We always had a family plan and it did NOT include "wait for govt to help."
mjharper
I understand the complaints, but when you consider other places that have it much worse (the Bahamas), they should consider themselves a little lucky.
Ex_Res
Over the years Japan bureaucracy has become so inept, that if you cut it by at leat 75℅ it might just become efficient again.
WA4TKG
How bad did Togane’ area get hit ? I know someone there I haven’t heard from
(used to live in Yachimata).
ebisen
I just love the "emergency generators" armchair specialists One such generator provides 2-300 kWh at maximum, enough to power one street (50-70 houses), if people turn on air conditioners. For engineering reasons, that street will have to be taken off the normal grid, something quite difficult to do. How many thousands of generators were you proposing again? Where are the thousands of highly specialised workers capable of taking apart the system and put it back together when all this is finished?
Not protecting TEPCO in any way, in just an electrical engineer.
Arrrgh-Type
Let me guess the solution- more concrete!
ebisen
I'll rant on this for a bit more:
Because electricity always works in Japan, people can't really imagine how hugely complex and difficult to manage piece of infrastructure this is. Thousands on times more complex than the road infrastructure. Chiba, being a peninsula is powered by massive 200kV power lines that run along its center and spread out like a tree. It failed where nobody really expected it to fail, with the huge towers collapsing. Besides having to rebuild all that, investigations are needed in order to find out what went wrong and fix it. Only this job usually takes months if not years, usually. TEPCO are really pushing it by promising fixes in two weeks, I can tell you these are only patchwork jobs, and a massive operation on live lines will have to come to do a final repair. My deepest respect to the linemen and engineers sweating it out there, you deserve every yen of your salary. Not many of the internet specialists would want it could do their extremely well paid jobs.
Here,a good video on that:
https://youtu.be/FGoaXZwFlJ4