Typhoon Hagibis

While spending all this time on cleaning up, I experienced an incredible storm. Typhoon Hagibis, the most powerful typhoon in recent Japanese history swept through area. I was warned that the winds would be excessive. Mr. Nakamura, the chief of the district and responsible for coordinating any activities related to a potential disaster situation came by and introduced himself. We both used our cell phones to try to communicate, but I understood from him that he is really concerned about my safety. He told me that I should be prepared to go to the shelter only a couple hundred yards away. He told me that the wind would be ferocious and that the rain would be very extensive as per forecast. I felt again a great unease, I was not sure what to expect and being there by myself did not make it any easier. Then the internet connection quit and I was cut off completely. I realized that I could not even make a phone call, as my phone service would not work.

Later in the afternoon the rain started to come down. Mr. Nakamura came again to see how I am doing. Next Mr. Shimizu also came by and made some suggestions on how to secure the sliding door windows that were exposed to the wind. They were a concern to me as well as they faced the wind straight ahead. What if the wind would just push them into house? What would I be doing to avoid to be injured by a sudden gust that breaks the glass? Many thoughts went through my head and indeed I was not sure what to do. Mr. Kawamata from the Kasama City Office also visited me, as he was concerned about my safety as well. He realized I did not have any curtains and so he went out to buy some for my sliding windows. I recognized that he thought the curtains at least would break the impact of shattered glass. This was a tense time. I was really unsure what will happen during the night.

I thought the roof of my house is coming off when the winds arrived in force. The house shook and the doors rattled. The glass windows were responding with some noise to the gusts of winds and I was on edge. I thought it might be a good idea to get a bag packed with essentials so that I could walk to the shelter if needed. I envisioned that I would sit on the floor of the shelter among others and certainly be a curiosity. Luckily it was not cold as typhoons are normally warm winds with rain. Torrential rain hit the house and I was not sure if and when the roof would leak. I heard the rain making noise from dropping onto some metal sheets I placed too close to the house. This went on for a few hours and for some reason I fell asleep. I still had a jet lag and my tense stress wiped me out. I woke up around midnight and the winds had subsided a bit although the rain continued to come down hard. I don’t know how I spend the next few hours, probably in and out of sleep.

When I got up it dawned on me that the house survived. There was no leak and I was safe. I saw that the front area of my property was completely flooded. There was just mud everywhere. I could not get into my car without having soaking muddy shoes. I immediately recognized that I would need to do something about this as it made life very unpleasant. I talked to Okudasan and he understood the problem well and acknowledged that this is a problem to be addressed. A few weeks later Mr. Takamatsu, an old friend of Okudasan, and his crew came by with their heavy machinery to add a layer of gravel and pressed it down. This was a much-needed improvement of the property and I just hope that it will prevent a messy situation in a future rainstorm.