sanjo 2 Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 Goodbye! Niigata, well Sanjo where I am, being flooded big time right now. I hope my house will be ok. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 Saw that on the news at lunchtime and thought, "I know of a fellow called sanjo - I hope that's not his house with the water running halfway up the first storey!" Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted July 14, 2004 Author Share Posted July 14, 2004 Thank you. Yes, we have a "Super Keihou" going on. Luckily for me, I am on a bit of a hill and avoiding the worst of it, but I don't think I'll be venturing out to town tonight! Pretty wild. Gosh, just looking at some of the new pics on the telly - those places are a couple of km from me!! Looks like tops of houses in the sea! Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 Those pesky 4 seasons. Japan has intense weather and a killer environment, unlike other places. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 Yeah, I bet you're feeling a bit melancholy to be in a country without a full complement of seasons. Japan's fifth season was just declared to be at an end today. Sorry if hearing that puts you in the dumps for a while. Actually, we're in the "grotesque images of athlete's foot at dinnertime" season. As I don't wear socks and nice shiny black shoes throughout the summer, I don't feel I have to look at those as I chew on my sashimi. Link to post Share on other sites
magikcow 0 Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 i heard about that, what are you guys doing up there? lol Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 That was pretty crazy. I loved watching the men tie a string around their waste and start to walk into the deeper water. Crazy bastards. What was really cool about the flood though was that it beat out Soga san for first story on the news Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 You're being a bit heartless there Toque. You might like to try experiencing one of these disasters for yourself. Kidnapping and forced separation from your family? Snigger. Trying to find your valuables under 4 ft of raging water? Lol. Good friends aged prematurely by their misfortune? Haha. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted July 15, 2004 Author Share Posted July 15, 2004 Yeah absolutely bloodyhilarious it is, hey, Toque. Peoples houses wrecked. Businesses in ruins. etc etc What a jolly fun time we're all having! Link to post Share on other sites
echineko 1 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 I don't think thing like this is good thing for joke. It is very insensitive and not nice. Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 It's not a joke at all. I used to do swiftwater rescue. The last thing you want is a fixed rope tied around your waste. Link to post Share on other sites
DrMabuse 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 It seems we must communicate in Canadago for this guy to get the point... Link to post Share on other sites
viv&kev 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 It must be awful, amazing and frightening how quickly that kind of scene can happen. Not very "cool" at all. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 I saw two pretty big mudslides 3/4 years ago in Hiroshima which were on the news at the time. It was like a chunk of a mountain was taken out. Scary. But, not as scary as tornados back home Link to post Share on other sites
viv&kev 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 Tell us about the tornados. Where is back home? Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 Alright yes I was a bit harsh there. The flood was crazy like said. Natures Fury is a thing to behold. Both horrible and beautiful at the same time. The cool part was sarcastically directed at the Japanese media's infatuation with every Miss Soga does and I was surprised that this flood beat it out for first story. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 A bit harsh but I some pretty stupid people last night doing the wrong thhings too. best to get out early or at least go in a bit of a group with a safety rope hell any rope that you can throw. you cannot pull yourself up tied to a line. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted July 15, 2004 Author Share Posted July 15, 2004 Perhaps everyone in the area should be made to prove that they have passed some survival/flood courses before being able to settle down and live in the area. That way, everyone will be sure to have the techniques and knowledge to survive in the event of such a disaster. Sheesh. Link to post Share on other sites
joshnii 2 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 Got a few friends in Sanjo, one now without a dry house. Nightmare. Your place still ok sanjo? Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted July 15, 2004 Author Share Posted July 15, 2004 Thanks, yeah I'm ok. I know quite a few people who aren't though. Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 Sanjo it really sucks that your area was flooded out. I am saying that it's better to wait till the water goes down to start looking for your stuff. Possessions can be replaced. Lives can't. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 In accidents like this we need to focus on everything. What went wrong and what went right. Number 1 not that many people were killed so that says alot went right or alot got lucky. I do know that in times of need you should think about safty first. people carrying kasas in a flood are just asking to fall down. People trying to cross a downstream hole eddy with a bike in tow is again not smart. carrying obachan on your back accross the flowing current with trees and fridges passing by and no rope that some one can pull you in with again not smart. Im not beening harsh but I will say the news did show alot of flooding donts yesterday. But snajo when I did hear about this last nite I remembered that you lived in Sanjo. I was hoping that you didnt get caught in the worst of it. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 Toque, you are a prick. . I too was a bit insensitive. It would be terrible to be in this situation, or to see your friends suffer the losses. This does not excuse Toques SHOCKING behaviour, but we need to remember that as sad as this is, it is a very common event the world over and not just limited to floods. We are but pissants in nature and when it rains we can drown and be washed away in a second. It is a fact of life and nothing can be done about it. I lived in a coastal National Park for 18 months in Oz. One christmas we were forced out by a massive raging fire. This caused loss of property and life over a 1 week period and it did not come under control until nature turned in our favour. Two weeks later it was raining so hard that the all the roads into my town were flooded and yet again, I was sleeping in a motel. Fire to flood in 2 weeks. Who are we to influence this? (I have seen houses that would survive a flood be all but obliterated by a 10 minute hail storm with ice the size of golf balls. That was intense) Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 It sounds like a lot of the people affected were elderly, so it must have been terrible for them. One issue here that is possibly special to Japan is the effect, if any, of all the damming and channeling of rivers on this catastrophe. Obviously a tremendous amount of rain fell, but it would be interesting to know whether the man-made defences mitigated or otherwise affected the flood. Reinforced riverbanks and dams are certainly ugly and environmentally destructive, so it would be nice to know that they serve a purpose beyond temporary job creation. Link to post Share on other sites
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