Heavy rains in Noto increase “vertical evacuation” and fears of leaks The kitchen on the first floor is flooded and unusable， resulting in unbalanced meals．
The record-breaking rains that hit the Noto region of Ishikawa Prefecture have caused the first floors of their homes to flood, with an increasing number of people seeking refuge on the second floor. The main reason is that it is easier to carry out recovery work such as shoveling mud compared to evacuation centers that are far away from homes, but some people are complaining of feeling unwell due to dust flying up from the first floor, and others are having an unbalanced diet because they cannot use the kitchen. There is no clear prospect of them being able to move into temporary housing, and residents are expressing anxiety about continuing to live on the second floor with no end in sight. (Shibata Kazuki) ◆Dust is flying around the house, and masks are essential The nearby Kawarada River overflowed, causing flooding above the floor level in Kawai-cho, Wajima City. “Don’t come down. “On the second floor.” Kumiko Kawakami (40), who was shoveling mud from the first floor of her house with a carpenter friend, scolded her elementary school-aged son who had come to check on them. Every time we removed a floorboard to shovel out the mud from underneath, dust rose up to face height inside the room. We live as a family of four, with my husband and two sons in first and third grade. On September 21st, there was heavy rain and the muddy water level rose rapidly, reaching more than one meter above the floor. The house is four years old. Just like in the Noto Peninsula earthquake, which caused some damage to the house, they plan to repair it and continue living in it. While the repairs were being made, they began living on the second floor, but the dust and foul stench from the first floor made both they and their son cough nonstop. Wearing a mask has become indispensable even at home. “The children are stressed out by the cramped space, and I’m worried about their health,” said Kawakami. “I can’t stay here for long,” he said, and applied to the city for permission to move into temporary housing, but his future plans, including the damage certification survey that is the standard for eligibility, have not yet been decided. They are calling on the government to “provide generous support, given that this flooding occurred after an earthquake.” Hisayo Kaji (41), a family of four with her husband and two daughters, an elementary school student and a kindergartener, moved from Higashinakao-cho in the city to a rented house in Kawai-cho, but one month later, the house was flooded above the floor level due to heavy rains. We were forced to live on the second floor. I couldn’t use the kitchen, so all I could cook was fry eggs on a portable stove. Almost all of our home appliances, including our refrigerator, broke, so we had to rely on cooler boxes to store food. Perishable foods cannot be preserved, and Kaji is troubled, saying, “The menu inevitably becomes biased.” They are not considering temporarily moving to an evacuation shelter because “we can’t just leave this place as it is, and the cleanup won’t progress.” Although he has applied for temporary housing, he has given up on moving in within the year. “During the earthquake, everyone suffered the same damage, so there was a sense of solidarity, but this time the flood damage is localized. It’s hard that not everyone can sympathize with me,” she laments. ◇ ◆The move-in date is undecided…issues with temporary housing Wajima City and Suzu City in Ishikawa Prefecture are accepting applications for temporary housing from residents whose homes were damaged in the Noto heavy rains. However, according to officials from both cities, the move-in date has not yet been decided. One of the challenges facing construction is securing land while taking into account risks such as flooding and landslides. According to both cities, as with the Noto Peninsula earthquake, occupancy is limited to residents who have a disaster certificate showing that their homes have been partially destroyed or more. According to national standards, a house is considered partially destroyed when water reaches 10 centimeters above the floor level in a flood. The interruption of lifelines such as water and electricity is also one of the requirements for occupancy. Both cities began damage assessment surveys to issue disaster certificates on the 4th. Tokyo Shimbun, October 7, 2024, 6:00am.
>>1 When I look at the map of Kawai-cho, there’s an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school, so I wonder if they can open up some of them. Aren’t there a lot of empty classrooms? I understand wanting to stay at home.
Why do you continue to live there? Health is more important than money. Wouldn’t it be better to move to a 6 tatami apartment in Kanazawa City, even if you have to pay for it yourself?
>>7 I completely agree. Remote flood-prone areas are no place for people to live. I don’t have a 6-tatami apartment, but if there’s a nice apartment like the public housing complex or Charme Maison in Kanazawa, I’d like to move there.
Well, if it’s made of wood, it has to be firmly connected to underground beams, otherwise the whole house will be swept away in a mudslide. Even if you say vertical evacuation, it depends on the strength of the building.
It was the same during the Great East Kanto Earthquake, but is it really necessary to use national tax money to rebuild disaster areas in the first place? If you can no longer live there, you can just move elsewhere. If you don’t have money, it’s your own fault for not having insurance.
>>30 There are opinions that say we shouldn’t spend money on this type of reconstruction, and opinions that we should spend money generously even if we have to secure a supplementary budget for reconstruction. There are both, and public opinion is completely divided. Politicians will choose a middle ground.
>>30 There it is! The family secret weapon “personal responsibility and divine punishment” “If you don’t like it, just leave” You were in political asylum overseas when the Democratic Party was in power, weren’t you? During the Great East Japan Earthquake, you said that Westerners wouldn’t be able to live on this archipelago for the next 1000 years So you’re still living in Beijing, right?
Houses built before the hazard map was announced are old and will need to be rebuilt, which is a bit unfortunate. Houses built after the hazard map was announced will either need to be flood-proofed or will not be lived in. My house is in an area with a 1m risk of flooding, so I built it with a 1.5m high floor just to be safe.
Flooding can be avoided with a hazard map… People planning to build a house should check the hazard map carefully The same goes for cliff collapses and landslides The rest is insurance. If you have no choice but to live in such an area, it would be better to have proper insurance.
>>34 This is it There must be a reason why the land is cheap, but they took the risk They don’t take out insurance or hedge their risks, and if something happens they’re going to help out with public funds or whatever.
>>34 When buying a house or land, real estate agents don’t mention hazard maps at all. They don’t mind building new houses near rivers, so they’re also selling used properties. We looked at the prefecture’s hazard map online before signing the contract, but… Basic information, like how many square meters the land is, and how many minutes walk from the station or bus stop, wouldn’t it be mandatory to display warning areas, and to display and explain them before signing a rental contract? Also, how many meters above sea level, and if there are rivers or ports nearby, the distance and elevation difference from the mountains, etc. For people who already live there, they should circulate it once a year in the neighborhood association, and elementary and junior high schools should also learn about the dangers in the area and major disasters in other areas in the past. People live without worrying about the risks.
>>34 The hazard maps before the earthquake are useless. Wasn’t it mostly safe? It seems like the hazard maps were updated after the earthquake, but the heavy rain caused flooding in areas that were supposed to be safe.
>>35 I’m a big fan of the idea of upgrading the entire Noto Peninsula to a traditional cultural region comparable to Kyoto, and making it possible to make a living from agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and tourism.
>>38 If you’re going to buy a house, you have to do your research on the land first. The government and developers who go to the trouble of changing the place names to cover up the wisdom of our ancestors and develop dangerous land are stupid, but the people who buy it are even stupider.
In the future, financial assistance for those who build and live in dangerous areas will be reduced, which will be unfair to those who have lived in rented accommodation all their lives.
Well, it seems logical that there would be no choice but to actively carry out reconstruction in Noto, which has the greatest potential for tourism. The future looks very uncertain…
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