Typhoon Hagibis: a year later

A year ago today in the early hours of October 13th I was standing in the car park of an evacuation center. I had slipped outside to check on the conditions as people were starting to head home in the dark in the middle of the night. The wind had eased off greatly and there was only a patter of rain.

Reports were coming in that the worst of the typhoon was over. Which many took as a sign that it was okay to go home. However, for the record: it is not safe to go home just because the wind and rain eases or stops. The biggest threat of a typhoon in a landlocked prefecture like Saitama is the rivers overflowing hours after the typhoon has passed through. Often it takes time for the high water to weaken the embankments and flooding to occur.  In fact, a lot of the casualties in this area of Saitama during Typhoon Hagibis were hours after the typhoon "finished". When people went back home - despite the danger alert still in place - and their houses flooded when the embankments eventually gave way to the heave of the raised waters.

Typhoon Hagibis was one of the largest typhoons ever recorded and one of the deadliest to hit Japan in decades.  Incredibly my own town went unscathed despite being surrounded by rivers. But the cities surrounding us all suffered significant damage. The floods caused by the typhoon caused many places to close for months on end. But this area wasn't as badly hit as towns and villages on the Ara River. 

A year after Hagibis hit there are still places in Saitama - in the Chichibu district in particular - that remain closed due to damage sustained during typhoon Hagibis. Larger campsites such as Nagatoro Autocamp and Waterpark Nagatoro had the money and the means to get their campsites back open in May of this year. But there are several smaller campsites that are still closed due to damage from Hagibis. Just last week we passed two roads closed due to landslides that happened after Typhoon Hagibis in the Chichibu district. And this year several events in the area were cancelled not because of Covid, but because of typhoon Hagibis. 

A year later and the mark of typhoon Hagibis still remains. And typhoon season is upon us again. One can only hope and pray that one the size of Hagibis will not pass through again anytime soon.