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MABI, Japan :: When Isao Akutagawa moved into the peaceful city of Mabi, in western Japan 45 years ago, it seemed like it was the perfect suburb to raise his children [19659002] Land was cheap and he could get to work in the nearby town of Kurashiki. As he built his home next to the rice paddies 2 kilometers from the shore of the Odagawa River, he heard stories of floods the previous year, but did not lend much money. be careful until local politicians warn residents that this could happen again. 19659004] "They told us years ago that the dykes of the Odagawa River could break," said Akutagawa, 79, while he was cleaning the muddy water from his living room. His home was submerged by torrential rains that caused torrential rains in western Japan this month, causing floods and landslides that left more than 200 people dead and over one year old. dozen missing. disaster in 36 years
Mabi, which merged with Kurashiki in 2005, was one of the hardest hit, accounting for most of the 51 dead in Kurashiki. More than a quarter of them were flooded, with waters reaching up to 4.8 meters in some neighborhoods.
Interviews with more than a dozen residents, officials, and experts show how multiple failures have increased the number of Mabi deaths. control plans have been delayed for decades; residents often did not understand warnings about risks; and an evacuation order for the most affected area arrived just minutes before confirmation that a dike had failed.
"We asked our local politicians to change the course of this river" Akutagawa said. A flood control project was finally approved in 2010 and construction was scheduled to begin this fall.
"If they had started earlier, even four or five years ago, we would not have that," he added.
Kurashiki City officials said that they had asked the Japan Lands Ministry to start working on the project every year since at least 2005. But this was not considered a priority enough .
However, officials of the city's emergency management office said, "The Ministry of Lands must make its decision after seeing all the requests sent from all over the country.All the regions, not just ours, do these things. requests hoping that our river will be chosen, "Hiroshi Kono said. , an emergency management officer at Kurashiki City. "Of course, we would have been very happy if ours had been chosen earlier."
Hiroshi Yamauchi, an official at the Chugoku regional development office in Hiroshima, told Reuters his agency had "followed proper procedures," but competition for a declining budget was partly behind schedule, as did an environmental impact study, said Kairyu Takahashi, head of the prefectural legislature, and member of a committee that discusses regional public works projects.
"I feel helpless that I could not get the government to act," he said, stifled by the emotion. "If we had completed it on time, it might not have happened."
At a press conference Friday, Keiichi Ishii, who heads the Ministry of Lands, Infrastructure and Transportation, oversees flood prevention projects. whether the high death toll in Mabi was a preventable "human disaster" or who was responsible for it
"We recognize that it is necessary to consider the steps we can take to reduce the damage caused by disasters, even a little bit. The secretary general of the cabinet, Yoshihide Suga, said at a separate press conference last week that the death toll in the region had increased.
For a graphic on the floods in Japan, https://tmsnrt.rs/2Jq5dMi
DECADES OF DELAY
moved to Mabi after the floods of 1972 and 1976 as flat lands next to two main rivers have been developed in a bedroom town. Mabi has become a quiet neighborhood of about 23,000 inhabitants. Elderly residents said that they knew about the risks of flooding, but had never seen the waters rise much higher than the knees.
Yet calls to improve flood control date back several decades.
for a diversion of the river and a dam, or a small dam, to provide water to farms and reduce the risk of flooding. According to Takahashi, the residents' resistance on the south side of the Odagawa River to the groundwater shutdown has paralyzed plans,
and public spending has declined sharply over the last 20 years, dropping off. about 60%. 14.9 trillion yen for the fiscal year ending March 1999 to 6 trillion yen for the current fiscal year, according to government data.
In 2014, 28 billion yen was allocated for a 30-year plan including a bypass between the Odagawa. and the Takahashi rivers. Work on this 10-year project was to begin later this year
CATASTROPHIC MAPPING
The city of Kurashiki, like all municipalities in Japan, was required, under a 2005 law, to create "hazard maps" describing the risk of flooding, landslides and other disasters, and the location of evacuation centers.
Two years ago, the city of Kurashiki wrote its own colorful hazard maps.
The maps were accurate; large areas of Mabi marked as risk areas on the maps correspond almost perfectly to the areas invaded by gushing flood waters.
But there were two problems: the city assumed a pattern of prolonged rain over a wide area rather than an intense concentrated downpour. According to the online planning documents, residents say that they have paid little attention to the maps.
A record rain gauge of 138.5 millimeters fell on July 6 in Kurashiki, just after the 183.5 millimeters recorded on September 3, 2011, according to weather agency data. Early the next morning, the waters crossed the dykes of the Odagawa and Takamagawa rivers, releasing the floodwaters.
Some residents said that they had simply ignored the hazard maps; After all, rainfall is relatively scarce in Okayama Prefecture, known as "Sun Land".
"For me, it was just another routine document of the public service," said Shigezo Kaneko, 80. by boat after the waters approached the ceiling of the first floor of his two-storey house. "I think I was not really vigilant."
"NOT IN TIME"
In 2015, Japan's Central Land Ministry developed a policy to better deal with disasters. . But notices and evacuation orders are left to the local authorities.
Kurashiki Mayor Kaori Ito announced the first evacuation order for the area south of the Odagawa River at 23:45. At 1:30 am the next day, using loudspeakers, telephone alerts and television and radio spots, the city ordered residents of the densely populated northern region to flee
. the first dam break on a small Takamagawa River.
Ito, asked about the timing at a press conference, expressed regret but said that she had gone through the book
"It (the order) was issued on the basis of the state of the river and in accordance with the standards (for the issuance), "she was quoted by the national media Reuters could not get to Ito last week to comment on the decision
Although his family escaped, 63-year-old Atsushi Yamashita failed to convince one of his neighbors, a man of about sixty-five years old. years, leaving his home the Odagawa River.The man was found dead later.
"Something similar could happen again in a few years," Yamashita said while workers were slowly cleaning up a mound of rubble in front of his house. "My wife says she does not want to live here anymore."
(Written by Mari Saito and Linda Sieg, r Kiyoshi Takenaka's additional report in Mabi, Linda Sieg, Ami Miyazaki and Elaine Lies reported from Tokyo; Gerry Doyle)
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