Large-scale flooding in Japan, caused by strong typhoons. Earthquakes and floods in Japan Flood report in Japan

ALMATY, July 8 - Sputnik. The death toll from the rainstorms and subsequent flooding in Japan is growing, with 81 deaths reported as of Sunday, local media reported.

The highest number of deaths was recorded in Hiroshima Prefecture in the southwest of Honshu Island, as well as in Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku Island.

According to NHK television, six people are unconscious, and another 60 people are missing.

Scope of consequences

More than 4.3 million people in Japan were ordered or advised to evacuate due to the storm, which in turn caused landslides.

According to the Kyodo news agency, recommendations or instructions to evacuate are in effect in 23 of the country's 47 prefectures. More than 54 thousand police officers, fire service employees and members of the country's self-defense forces were deployed to eliminate the consequences of the disaster and carry out rescue operations.

In the morning, an emergency government headquarters began working at the office of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to collect and analyze information about the consequences of heavy rains and coordinate the work of departments involved in eliminating the consequences of the rampant disaster. During the meeting, Abe stressed that “the safety of many citizens has not yet been confirmed” and called for every effort to carry out rescue operations and evacuate the victims.

© REUTERS/Kyodo

How it all began

The first alarming news from Japan arrived on June 30, when 26 thousand residents of Miyazaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu were advised to evacuate.

Typhoon Prapirun, number 7 in Japan, was reported to be moving north from the Pacific Ocean. The southwestern regions of Japan were expected to be affected on Sunday and Monday. The typhoon was accompanied by heavy rains, which could trigger landslides and mudflows.

© REUTERS/Kyodo

Already by July 1, the approach of Typhoon Prapirun to the southern Japanese islands led to the cancellation of about 250 flights and the suspension of sea traffic.

The first victim of the disaster became known on July 2. According to Japanese television channel NHK, four people were injured in the southern prefecture of Okinawa. In South Korea, according to the Yonhap agency, one person was injured, another died, and two were missing.

​Precipitation continues

The day before, meteorologists warned that downpours of up to 200 millimeters per hour would continue in the southwestern and central regions today.

By Sunday morning, more than 1,050 millimeters of precipitation had fallen in Gifu Prefecture, 745 millimeters in Ehime Prefecture, 465 millimeters in Kyoto, 442 millimeters in Hiroshima, 430 millimeters in Hyogo, and in Okayama Prefecture, where in some areas houses were flooded up to the second floor and higher - 310 millimeters. This is 2-3 times more than the average monthly norm.

Reports of damage and flooding continue to pour in. In Hiroshima Prefecture, a railway bridge was swept away by a flooded river. In Okayama Prefecture, where water levels have risen to the second floor or higher, people on rooftops are asking for help.

It amazed the whole world with its scale and forced the country's government to evacuate about 170,000 local people. The disaster affected a large number of residents of the country, flooding their homes, reaching the roof level. Among the main problems that authorities are struggling with is tons of water contaminated by radiation flowing into the ocean.

A large-scale flood that struck the world with its disappointing consequences

The severe flooding in Japan reminded the world community of an incident that occurred almost 60 years ago, when a huge amount of water poured into the same lands. It all started with the fact that in some areas of the country the amount of precipitation equal to the two-month norm fell. For example, two terrible typhoons hit this beautiful city, as a result of which it became vast and large cities changed beyond recognition.

The roadway had lost its usual appearance, the bridges were destroyed and unusable. In the first days, the number of missing people was about 27 people, 4 dead, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated with the help of rescue helicopters, which was the only way to save people sitting on the roofs of their own houses.

Historical facts: devastating natural disasters and disasters in Japan

Back in 1959, Japanese lands were hit by two incredibly destructive hurricanes, which paralyzed transport links and caused widespread damage to the country's infrastructure.

The 2011 earthquake on the island of Honshu was disastrous for the country, as its consequences were disappointing and claimed about 16 thousand human lives. Cataclysms of this nature provoked a tsunami, which disabled reactors at nuclear power plants.

The world community is interested in what year was the flood in Japan? This devastating event occurred in June 2015, leaving a huge number of people homeless.

Evacuation of victims

The flood in Japan took the country by surprise, but the authorities were not at a loss and directed all their efforts to what was their main task. All helicopter equipment of the state was involved in this rescue operation. People whose homes were flooded were on the roofs waiting for help. Many animals died from despair. About 1 million people were evacuated, and this proved to the world community that the country was able to endure even the flood in Japan, uniting into a single and omnipotent whole.

Reactors under threat

The current situation threatens the depressurization of nuclear reactors, the number of which at the power plant is 4. The worsening of the situation entails an irreversible nuclear catastrophe. The management of the power plant and the government of the country comment on further uncontrolled actions of the elements regarding the nuclear power plant as force majeure due to the insufficient number of pumping pumps. During the construction of the nuclear power plant, such a situation was not foreseen, as a result of which a threat loomed over the country.

Therefore, the flood in Japan jeopardized not only the development of infrastructure, but also human lives, which are the highest value for the country's leadership.

Radiation risk caused by flooding and depressurization of reactors

A similar risk is caused by the presence of holes in the reactors, through which the fuel enters the ground. The fuel is then mixed with groundwater. During normal operation, these waters are pumped into specially designed tanks. And in such a force majeure case, with an increase in the groundwater level, everything ends up on the surface of the earth.

The latest flood in Japan also provoked an excess of the permissible level of radioactive elements such as carbon-14, tritium or strontium in the soil. The latter are extremely harmful to power plant workers. If contaminated waters enter the ocean basin, they will be distributed along the coast, and in the future the phenomenon of their accumulation in the thickness of the ocean shelf will become inevitable.

On March 11, 2011, a wave of earthquakes swept through Japan. The strongest shock was 9.1 on the Richter scale, after which more than 400 aftershocks were recorded (aftershock - the second and subsequent seismic shocks, of lower intensity compared to the main seismic shock). The first shock was recorded at 8:46 Moscow time, the rest occurred almost continuously over the next two hours. Such an earthquake has never happened in the history of the country.

The earthquake occurred 130 kilometers east of the city of Sendai on the island of Honshu. In just 10-30 minutes, tsunami waves reached the first affected areas. An hour after the tragedy began, Sendai airport was flooded.

According to published data from the American Institute of Nuclear Energy, we see that at the very peak of the earthquake at the epicenter the earth shook with an acceleration of 3.43 m/s²; the University of Tokyo claims that in some areas this acceleration exceeded 4.9 m/s². But the main damage was caused not by the earthquake, but by the tsunami. The warning for this hazard was the most severe and was predicted to be “large”, measuring 3 meters high. But in reality everything turned out to be much worse. In some places the wave reached 40.5 meters. The tsunami destroyed everything in its path: cars, houses.

At 9:12 Moscow time - Kamaishi - 6.8 m

At 9:15 Moscow time - Ofunato - 3.2 m or higher

At 9:20 Moscow time - Ishinomaki - 3.3 m or higher

At 9:21 Moscow time - Miyako - 4.0 m or higher

At 9:21 Moscow time - Kamaishi - 4.1 m or higher

At 9:44 Moscow time - Erimo - 3.5 m

At 9:50 Moscow time - Soma - 7.3 m

At 10:52 Moscow time - Oarai - 4.2 m

Nearby areas were also affected. Waves 1-2 meters high hit the Kuril Islands from the south. 11 thousand people were evacuated from the village of Malokurilskoye. The wave also swept through Hawaii, destroying several piers and about 200 boats. But, thanks to the wall in the form of hotels, the wave was stopped. A 2-meter-high wave hit the California coast in Crescent City, damaging 35 boats and killing a person. In Ecuador, a tsunami flooded San Cristobal. In Peru, the ocean initially retreated 200 meters, but upon its return it destroyed several houses.

But the most terrible consequences, of course, were in Japan itself in the prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima. According to data from September 5, 2011, the death toll is 15,870 people. There are 2,860 missing people in 6 prefectures. In 20 prefectures, 6,110 people were injured. At that time, thousands of people were cut off from the world. 530 thousand people were left without a roof over their heads, in temporary shelters, and this despite the fact that, according to forecasts, a decrease in temperature was expected. Everyone was afraid that there would be a shortage of food and warm clothes.

In the city of Minamisanriku, 9,500 people went missing. In Sendai, 10 km of coastal area was flooded, about 200-300 people drowned, and 650 people went missing. A passenger train traveling from Sendai to Ishinomaki disappeared. They were waiting for him a few minutes before the tsunami began, but he never arrived. Another train derailed. 1,800 houses and a dam were destroyed in Fukushima Prefecture. The city of Rikuzentakata was wiped off the face of the earth and along with it 5,000 houses. In the city of Yamada, 7,200 houses went under water.

An oil refinery caught fire in the city of Ichihara, and an explosion occurred at a petrochemical plant in the city of Sendai.

Every day the consequences of the destruction became more and more terrible. The operation of 11 nuclear power units out of 53 existing ones stopped.

At the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, three power units were immediately shut down. Due to the failure of the cooling system, three reactors were in emergency condition. Subsequently there was a radioactive release. There was radioactive contamination at the nuclear power plant itself. By March 15, the population of 200,000 had been evacuated. Several nuclear power plant workers received an increased dose of radiation, two people went missing. At the Fukushima-2 nuclear power plant, 4 power units were shut down. But two days later, on March 13, a fire was discovered on the first floor of the main power unit. The radioactive background was disturbed, and due to the fault of the Fukushima-1 plant (illegal interference in the process of eliminating the accident). The only power unit at the Tokaj Nuclear Power Plant was shut down. There was a problem with one of the cooling pumps.

The damage of the earthquake was estimated at 16-25 trillion yen (that's from 198 to 309 billion dollars). And this does not include in the assessment of losses from the decline in industrial growth, GDP and trade volumes.

On Friday, March 11, 2011 at 08:46 Moscow time, an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Japan. Evacuations were carried out in many coastal cities, but the main blow fell on Japan - on Miyagi Prefecture, 130 kilometers from which the epicenter was located.

As a result of this strongest earthquake in the history of the country, a tsunami hit the coast of Japan, sweeping away everything in its path - buildings, cars, people... The tsunami warning issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency was the most serious on its danger scale; it was assessed as “large”, at least 3 m high. The actual height was much higher. The maximum was observed in Miyagi Prefecture and reached 40.5 m. The earthquake occurred about 70 km from the nearest point on the Japanese coast, and initial calculations showed that the tsunami took between 10 and 30 minutes to reach the first affected areas, then further north and south depending on the geography of the coast. A little over an hour after the earthquake, the tsunami flooded Sendai Airport, which is located off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture. Strong waves washed away cars and planes, flooded and destroyed buildings.

The earthquake is associated with another no less terrible event - the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. The earthquake and tsunami impact disabled external power supplies and backup diesel generators, which caused the inoperability of all normal and emergency cooling systems and led to a meltdown of the reactor core at power units 1, 2 and 3 in the early days of the accident. As a result, a series of explosions followed at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd reactors: March 12, 14, 15, 2011. Attempts to take control of the situation continued for quite a long time - only on June 3 did the situation stabilize. Elimination of the consequences of the accident continues to this day. According to official data, there is no threat to the health and life of residents of nearby countries, but at one time the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant caused a real sensation among residents of the Far East.

The damage from the disaster is simply incredible. Material losses exceeded $200 billion. In addition, Tokyo had to allocate significant funds to conduct long-term monitoring of the health of Fukushima residents. According to the Japanese government, the damage caused to buildings and other infrastructure by the March 11 earthquake and the tsunami it caused is estimated at 16.9 trillion yen, or about $210 billion. At the same time, the authorities’ calculations did not take into account the damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, which would have significantly increased the amount. The human toll is enormous: the official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan's 12 prefectures is 15,869, with 2,847 missing in 6 prefectures and 6,109 injured in 20 prefectures. The cities most affected by the flooding were Rikuzentakata, Sendai and Yamada - they practically went under water. The city of Minamisanriku leads in the number of missing people - 9.5 thousand residents have not been found! Almost a year has passed since the monstrous event that turned ancient and once prosperous cities into flooded wastelands and led to the worst nuclear disaster in a quarter of a century. There has been some progress in rebuilding lives over the past 12 months, but much remains to be done.

That in the west of the country, 104 people died as a result of floods and landslides caused by heavy rains. About 50 more people are still missing.

In Japan, every year in the second half of June - early July there is a rainy season, which is called "plum" ("bayu" or "tsuyu"). Sometimes during this season, 100 mm or more of precipitation falls per day, which causes catastrophic floods and landslides. The most destructive rainfall occurred in 1953 - then on the island of Kyushu in western Japan, 759 people died as a result of flooding, and more than 450 thousand people lost their homes.

The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared material about major floods that led to human casualties in Japan over the past ten years. The flood was the most serious in terms of death toll since 1983 (118 people died then).

July 19-26, 2009 31 people became victims of landslides, floods and other emergencies caused by heavy rains on the territory of the Japanese islands of Honshu (Chugoku region) and Kyushu (west of the country), and another 55 people were injured. Damage occurred in Tottori, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Saga and Nagasaki prefectures.

In the affected areas, flows of water and mud completely destroyed 45 buildings, flooded or damaged more than 2 thousand buildings, and over 10 thousand people were evacuated to temporary shelters. Rivers overflowing their banks seriously damaged a number of roads. Due to the risk of flooding and landslides, traffic on major highways and railway lines was disrupted. According to the meteorological department, July 2009 was the cloudiest and rainiest month since 1946 for several regions of Japan.

July 26-30, 2011 heavy rains in Niigata and Fukushima prefectures (eastern Japan), where a record 100 mm of rain fell in a number of areas in just an hour, caused landslides and flooding. Four people were killed and seven were injured. 17 buildings were completely destroyed, about 8 thousand houses were damaged. Near the village Sanjo (Niigata Prefecture) water flows partially destroyed the Kasabori Dam, units of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces evacuated local residents.

July 3-14, 2012 Heavy rains on the island of Kyushu in the prefectures of Kumamoto, Oita and Fukuoka killed a total of 30 people and injured 27 others. 363 buildings were destroyed, 3 thousand 298 buildings fell into the flood zone.

July 5-6, 2017 40 people became victims of heavy rains in Fukuoka and Oita prefectures, and two more were missing as of July 2018. In the city of Asakura (Fukuoka), a record 586 mm of precipitation fell in one day. 336 buildings were completely destroyed. 515 thousand 700 people received recommendations to evacuate.