Chiba foreigners facing Typhoon Ampil together

I admit that on Thursday, with the sun blazing and the temperatures scorching, I felt a little fear as the city public address system broadcast a voluntary evacuation and named the shelters in various neighborhoods. The precaution was taken as Typhoon # 7, named Ampil, approached the Boso Peninsula south of me. Today, August 17th, routine is resuming and transport is getting back on track as the typhoon moved out into the Pacific.

It’s old news now, but it jolted governments, organizations, and community groups to mobilize support for foreign residents. The Chiba Prefecture government international affairs section emailed me and fellow volunteers to spread the word that the Chiba Convention Bureau and International Center staff were standing by to answer questions in multiple languages from foreign residents.


The Edo River in flood near my home after a typhoon in 2019 

A Chiba community Facebook group immediately started message threads, and many foreign residents asked and answered questions about utilities, shelters, and announcements. We were able to keep company and help each other. One of the valuable links that one resident shared with us is the national government’s initiative to provide info for foreign residents. But when it came down to it, the community members themselves put non-Japanese-speaking residents at ease and translated neighborhood-level info in real time.

Another platform, Reddit, has a recently created subreddit r/japanweather with frequent meteorological posts making it worth following. So far, it's got a lot of detailed images and text and it's gaining momentum. 

Ediit - corrected the name of the typhoon.

Does your community - within your city or across your prefecture - have a social media channel to help foreign residents help each other? Which platform do you use?