Shocked city assesses flood damage; 3 dead, 23 missing

“There was no time to escape, all we could do was go upstairs. It was horrifying,” she said. “I kept praying the water wouldn’t come upstairs.”

Thank the gods they survived. Must have been awful. I'm wondering why on earth these people had not evacuated, though. Did they not know of the immediate threat? Surely if others in the same area were already in community centers and other shelters these people HAD to know that the torrential rains were causing the river to swell to dangerous proportions.

Hats off to the SDF, police forces and all of the other trained personnel involved in helping people in trouble. The videos I've seen show repeated acts of heroism, people risking their own lives to save lives.

A river bank collapsed, it really happened in the wink of an eye on some places.

No, the evacuation was screwed up. It was for another town and then people were told to go east of the river and then west of the river. The evacuation time was too late. The city should have been on the safe side and just have asked residents to evacuate early; better to be safe than sorry. Really terrible scenes. It reminded me of 4 years ago in Tohoku.

I was actually quite shocked seeing the videos of the floodwaters from the Kinugawa River overflowing its banks and scouring everything in its path. You don't see that here that often here in the USA, either.

Best wishes for a quick recovery from this calamity.

I live close to a ASDF air base in Chiba.Quite used to the comings and goings of military aircraft everyday. The last couple of days have seen hundreds of noisy helicopter sorties flying all night and keeping us all awake.

But I do not care about being awake all night and hope the people get saved soon.

Go ASDF!

Off topic, but why is the SDF guy wearing a helmet?

HimajinSEP. 11, 2015 - 07:00PM JST A river bank collapsed, it really happened in the wink of an eye on some places.

By this do you mean the artificial embankment that, like the Mississippi the closer it gets to the delta, "protects" development on either side of the river's natural flood plain?

This will become a more frequent occurrence in Japan apace with global warming and more intense and frequent typhoons.