Severe weather caused a great landslide in a small island in
central Japan, which took twenty-five lives and left twenty-one still missed.
Typhoon No. 26, swept away southern coast of Japan between Tuesday night and
Wednesday morning. In Izu-Oshima, an island located offshore of Izu Peninsula,
extremely heavy rain drew great landslide of hills, swallowing up a number of
houses below. Although police office warned the local government to get the
residents evacuated, no suggestion was made, for their regrets.
Main reason of the disaster was that land surface of the
hill was covered by volcano ashes accumulated for years. Unprecedentedly heavy
rain washed those ashes and they made a great amount of muddy stream to the
town area. Because of its liquidity, the stream flooded so rapidly that people
in the houses did not have enough time to evacuate early in the morning.
Disastrous impact of the typhoon could be said to be predictable.
Japan Meteorological Agency had been reporting the magnitude and likely course
of it a few days before. The municipal office of Oshima Town actually held a
meeting by policemen, fire department officers and other staffs of public
offices to consider the measures for the typhoon Tuesday morning, in which they
agreed on assembling on two o’clock next morning, if needed. But, they could
not save the residents from the landslide.
Absence of the Mayor and vice-Mayor on the island led to
hesitance of the local government to take immediate action. Although the JMA
faxed warning information about landslide disaster Tuesday evening, no one
noticed it in the municipal office. Additionally, based on the information of
river flood, Oshima police office recommended the municipal office to evacuate
the residents for two times in the morning, but the staffs took no action.
Critical time for decision was in the middle of the night. The mayor told that
evacuation in the darkness might have been dangerous.
They saw astonishing scene next morning. The town turned
into mire with broken trees in it. Hearing groans underground, rescue team
salvaged some people from the mud, leaving others helplessly resulted to their
deaths. The amount of the mud was so huge that the efforts for searching
survivors were making slow progress.
Although news reports accused local government not to take
appropriate action in the emergency, it was not easy for the staffs to
correctly assess the magnitude of disaster. Families of victims came back in
town is just looking for the reflections of their beloved, which was brought
down by the landslide.
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