Heavy Rain Washes Kyushu

Heavy rain washed away the houses in northern Kyushu. After a typhoon passed, pouring rain slowly moved from west to east over Fukuoka and Oita Prefecture between Tuesday and Friday. Floods or landslides killed 6 people and 19 are missed by Friday morning. Local governments issued evacuation order to hundreds of thousands people. Self-defense Force was dispatched to the devastated area to rescue isolated people. Severe weather matters to security of Japan.

The residents of the houses broken by flood told that the rain was unprecedentedly heavy. In Asakura city, Fukuoka, it made new record of pouring rain with accumulation of hourly 129.5 millimeter or 513.5 millimeter in 24 hours. After the typhoon swept western Japan away, seasonal rain front came down from northeastern Japan and wet air flew into from the south, creating belt of rain clouds.

Heavy rain caused fall of trees in broad area. Those trees were floated by river water and stopped the stream with accumulation in some points, causing flood in local communities. Evacuated people told their scared experience of flood breaking their houses. Wet soil easily makes landslide. A landslide in Hita city, Oita, swallowed three people, one of whom was found dead.

Nimbus belt is contemporary trend of heavy rain in Japan. Wet air came from the south  and collided with the mountains in north Kyushu. The air not be able to go through would ascent to the sky, creating dense cumulonimbus. Consecutive produce of those blocks of cloud shaped a belt over Kyushu Island. “It was amazing that rain belt stayed in a certain small area for nine hours,” told a scholar in weather engineering.

Japan Meteorological Agency issued a special warning for Fukuoka and Oita Wednesday evening, which meant the storm would be the biggest disaster in decades. However, it is realized that evacuation should be done before special warning was delivered. City of Asakura recommended the residents to evacuate in the afternoon. Nevertheless, four people were killed by flooded water.

In a natural disaster, the most reliable organization in Japan is Self-defense Force so far. Ground Self-defense Force was mobilized for rescuing the people from the beginning of the long rain. The operation is still ongoing. Minster of Defense, Tomomi Inada, who made inappropriate speech in the election campaign for Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly last week, was missed during serious effort of her personnel in Thursday afternoon. It was proved that she was in a political event, but the Ministry refused to announce what kind of event she attended then. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Germany for Group of 20 summit meeting. Leadership matters.