Update on the Joso City, Japan flood

[Art_from_Ark]

Joso City is a municipality that is located on two rivers-- the Kokai River and the Kinu(gawa) River, and is close to the Tone River-- in Ibaraki Prefecture, about 35 miles northeast of Tokyo. As you may know, parts of the city were devastated by a huge flood that occurred when a 500-foot section of a levee along the Kinugawa River ruptured on Thursday local time. Travel to the city is still extremely difficult, as access to the main highway that runs through the city, National Route 294, is severely restricted, as are other routes, and the Joso train line that connects the city with other train lines is completely shut down. There are still search-and-rescue efforts underway to try to locate the 15 people who are still unaccounted for, and as of 1:30pm Japan Standard Time, there were still 188 people who were still waiting to be rescued.

Here is a shot of a search-and-rescue helicopter hovering around the Kokai River:



This is a shot of a traffic jam that occurred today on a couple of smaller highways that lead to Joso City. The buildings in the background are in Joso. There were huge traffic jams on all major roads in this area that led to Joso.


This is a shot of National Route 294, which is the main thoroughfare that links Joso with points south and north. The photo was taken in Tsukuba Mirai City, from the southbound lanes. The northbound lanes, which lead to Joso, were blocked by the police.



Here is a picture taken yesterday of the Tone River just a bit downstream from its confluence with the Kinugawa River. During normal times, the actual river is about 1/4 to 1/5 the width it was yesterday.



Here is a picture taken yesterday of the Edo River just to the west of the Tone River.

[cwydro]

1. Scary stuff.

I have a question that is not in regard to this subject, but I was struck by how many cars are either silver or white. That one of the traffic jam looks like all white cars.

Is that common in Japan?

[Art_from_Ark]

2. White is the most popular car color in Japan

Probably for a few reasons:
1) It's easy to match if a touch-up paint job is needed
2) It doesn't absorb heat as much as other colors on hot summer days.
3) Also, it doesn't stand out. The Japanese have a saying that "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down," so maybe to a lot of Japanese, it's better to keep a low profile.