West Japan July 2018 Floods

[Densha]

With this year's typhoon season just having started, West Japan has already been getting heavy amounts of rain during the last few days. Even so much that rivers and sewer systems cannot handle it, which has caused floods in a lot of areas from Fukuoka all the way up to Kyoto. Some deaths have already been reported, and several people are missing. There is also a lot of damage to property. Many railway lines and highways in the mentioned areas have been closed down.

 

This sequence shows how quickly the water level rose at some places.

 

The current situation in Kurashiki, Okayama (Ibara Tetsudou's Kibinomakibi Station in the background).

 

Not much remains of this bridge on the Geibi Line.

 

The water level of the Nagara River rose so much that the tracks of the Nagaragawa Railway flooded.

 

Due to landslides a lot of railway lines have been damaged, such as the Kure Line.

 

 On the Chikuhi Line a landslide even caused a train to derail.

[katoftw]

Not good.

[railsquid]

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/07/07/national/scenes-havoc-wreaked-heavy-rains-western-japan/

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by railsquid

[railsquid]

NHK live broadcast: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/live/

[railsquid]

To round the day off, a M6.0 quake just off the coast of Chiba, no news of damage so far.

[Sacto1985]

You can see the latest news from Japan on Asahi News Network (ANN) livestream on YouTube:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu2etwHzcvw

[Densha]

The floods happening now in Western Japan was even one of the main items on the Dutch TV news just now.

 

Now it's the Sanyo Main Line's turn to get covered by mud.

 

At least the fish have more space now...

[scotspensioner]

I watched the NHK world news yesterday afternoon.After a description of the devastation being caused,the item was ended with a note that the Shin -Osaka to Hakata Shinkansen had restarted!

Note to Britains Network Rail !!!

[Densha]

The Takayama Main Line and Yosan Line now also have some pretty heavily damaged sections.

 

[miyakoji]

Was that pier dislocated just by force of the water?  Yikes.

[cteno4]

Looks like it may have undermined the foundation of the pier with scouring. All horrific.

 

jeff

[miyakoji]

Ah that makes more sense.  I wonder how long it's going to take the various companies to get back to normal operations.  Luckily Japan has a fully developed construction industry, they should be able to get started as soon as rain stops 🙂

[katoftw]

The bridge in Kyushu that lost 3 piers and 4 metal spans took almost 2 years to replace.  The grand reopening ceremony scheduled for this week was cancelled due to this bad weather.  Irony.

 

It will depend on the train line as to how long this will be back up and running.  If one pier has moved, all the others will need to be check.  Could be a lot worse than first glance.

[Sacto1985]

The most likely highest priority is to get the San'yo Main Line fully operational again. They'll probably do a lot of work on the Kure Line, too.

[Densha]

Yeah. Although passenger intercity traffic is possible by Shinkansen, the Sanyo Main Line being closed combined with the closure of many highways means trouble for the supplying of stock to stores in many areas. The only highway that connects Honshu with Kyushu for example is still closed, and freight trains from Central Japan can't get to Kyushu either due to parts of the Sanyo Main Line being damaged. I already saw people on the news fleeing to Honshu by ferry.

[Sacto1985]

Re-opening the San'yo Main Line should be a major priority, since at least essential goods can be moved by train. They do also need to re-open the San'yo and Chugoku EXpressways so truck traffic can move through.

[Sacto1985]

According to this news:

 

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201807120037.html

 

It appears that JR West will try to get the San'yo Main Line reopened by middle August 2018. Fixing the other lines in the Hiroshima region will take longer, especially the Geibi Line, which may take up to a year for repairs.

[Densha]

Due to an interruption of the Yosan Line, Shiokaze limited express services are currently split into Okayama - Tadotsu services and Kanonji - Matsuyama services. Some trains on the latter section are run by 2000 series DMUs, which has not happened for 2 years.

 

[katoftw]

Freight to Kyushu is going via the Sanin Line. New article today on tv about it.

 

 

Edited August 29, 2018 by katoftw

[lesliegibson]

Don't do facebook and get a tad annoyed that a lot of stuff is posted not only on here but other websites only available by logging into facebook. Any thoughts?  

[katoftw]

Do facebook or twitter.  I only have accounts so a can access facebook or twitter stuff.  Otherwise I miss out.

[cteno4]

Yes most social media is only meant to be “in the moment” and goes after a while like the Post above.

 

Most social media stuff that is posted in the forum thru post embeds here at least the basic post on fb or twitter and the images in that post are accessable even w.o fb or tw accounts. 

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

I dont agree. Most social media stuff hangs around normally forever.

 

Some 0.01% like the above gets deleted or privcy settings get changed.

[cteno4]

sorry Poor wording there. I meant since it’s more in the moment folks don’t care about it later so if they change privacy settings or delete accounts or old posts they really don’t think it matters, but in our case it does.

 

probably more like at least a few percent as I know I’ve seen a handful of dead ones in the last few months and I know I have not looked at 1000 social media embeds on the forum in that time.

 

jeff

[lesliegibson]

As I have no intention of opening an account with any so called 'social media' looks as though I will miss out on the odd gem.