Typhoon Talas, Central Japan

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1 Typhoon Talas, Central Japan Tetsuya Okada It has been six months since the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. While the country was working on the recovery from the massive-scale aftermath, another disaster caused by a strong typhoon occurred in the west part of Japan. Typhoon Talas (No.12 in Japan) was spawned west of the Mariana Islands on the 25 th of August and moved north, increasing its power. The Typhoon made landfall in the east part of Kochi Prefecture in the Shikoku region on the 3 rd of September at around 10am, retaining its full strength. It slowly moved across the Shikoku and Chugoku regions and reached the Japan Sea early on the 4 th. Its large scale and slow speed, which caused the prolonged inflow of air with high humidity, generated record amounts of heavy rain in the western and northern parts of Japan, particularly in the mountainous areas. For example, the total rainfall after 17:00 on the 30 th of August exceeded 1,000 mm, while an observatory in Kamikitayama Village in Nara Prefecture had a 72-hour rainfall of 1,652.5 mm, which greatly exceeded the previous national record of 1,322 mm in Miyazaki. The heavy rainfall caused various impacts such as mudslides, inundation and riverine floods, and there were numerous casualties and missing persons, mainly in Wakayama, Nara and Mie Prefectures. Inundation damage to buildings, agriculture and transport systems was also brought by the Typhoon to an extensive area extending from Hokkaido to Shikoku. As of 14 th of September, the number of deaths and missing persons reached 66 and 30 respectively. Amongst various impacts caused by the Typhoon, landslides destroyed houses, roads and bridges leaving a number of villages isolated. They also created natural dams at dozens of places (at least 16 places in Nara). Two out of four large natural dams in Nara and Wakayama Prefectures remain critical and may breach with further rainfall from typhoon Roke, which is approaching western Japan and may impact the Nara and Wakayama regions in the next few days. It is very difficult to safely drain the water using pumper trucks, because the affected areas are surrounded by 1,000 m high mountains. According to the General Insurance Association of Japan, the total payouts from the insurance industry in Japan are estimated to surpass 10 billion JPY (US$ 130 million). The total economic loss will be even greater than that amount. The Typhoon also damaged agricultural products in a broad area in Japan. For example, Gunma Prefecture in the Kanto region estimated the financial damage to their agricultural products at over 500 million JPY (US$ 6.5 million). The central government of Japan is moving forward to designate the event as a tremendous catastrophe, which enables the national funding capacity for recovery costs to be increased. Briefing Note 226 Page 1

2 References Japan Meteorological Agency portal.html pdf Japan Broadcasting Corporation The Asahi Shimbun Company Nikkei Inc. EBE0E2E3E3E2E2E2E2E2E2;at=DGXZZO The Mainichi Newspapers Briefing Note 226 Page 2

3 Track of Typhoon Talas (Modified from Japan Meteorological Agency) pdf Locations of the main impact areas (Source: BBC) asia pacific Briefing Note 226 Page 3

4 Natural landslide dam in Gojo City, Nara (Source: The Asahi Shimbun Company) Briefing Note 226 Page 4

5 Mudflow forming a natural dam in Nosegawa Village, Nara (Source: The Asahi Shimbun Company) Briefing Note 226 Page 5

6 Broken railway bridge on the JR Kisei line in Nachikatsuura Town, Wakayama (Source: The Asahi Shimbun Company) Overflowing water from floods in a residential area in Nachikatsuura Town, Wakayama, on Sunday, Sept. 4 (Source: The Washington Times, primarily from AP Photo/Kyodo News) talas kills least 20 japan/ Briefing Note 226 Page 6

7 A boulder lies at the entrance of a flood damaged house in Nachikatsuura Town, Wakayama (Source: The Guardian) talas japan inpictures?intcmp=ilcnettxt3487#/?picture= &index=7 Briefing Note 226 Page 7

1. Japan's basic flood protection system. 2. Preparedness for major floods. Past major floods and state-level efforts Role of MLIT

1. Japan's basic flood protection system 2. Preparedness for major floods Past major floods and state-level efforts Role of MLIT 8 Flood caused by Typhoon Kathleen (1947) Higashi-mura (present-day Otone-machi)