200 - Typhoon Committee

TCAR
CHAPTER 1 - TYPHOON COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES 2007
2007
2. Progress in Member’s Important,
High-Priority Goals and Objectives
c. Interaction with users, other Members,
and/or other components
c-1. Major Disaster and Response Measures since
October 2006
Since October 2006 until October 2007, Japan has suffered
meteorological or hydrological disasters including a
tornado in Saroma, Typhoon MAN-YI, Typhoon USAGI,
Typhoon FITOW and Typhoon NARI. (Table 4-1).
In particular, with the tornado in Saroma, Hokkaido, and
a tornado which occurred in September in Miyazaki, the
total number of people killed by tornados in 2006 had
become twelve. This was a historical record as only one
person was killed by tornado in Japan in the last ten
years. Bearing in mind these severe damages, an interministry
meeting was established in November 2006 to
strengthen measures to reduce damage from tornados.
The meeting convened three times, involving professors
and researchers who specialize in tornados. Along with
this meeting, a mission to the United States was conducted
to research their countermeasures against tornados.
Based on these findings, the meeting developed and
agreed on the following: 1) the content of a pamphlet
which contains the characteristics of tornados in Japan
and the ways on how to protect oneself against a
tornado, and 2) programs by relevant ministries towards
strengthening countermeasures against tornados in the
next three years. The pamphlet was widely distributed
through ministries and local governments to raise
awareness of the population.(Figure 4-1)
Figure 4-1 Pamphlet to raise awareness against tornados
(page 1 and page 8)
c-2. Technical Investigation on Large-Scale Flood
Countermeasures
There has been a large reduction in terms of the
area inundated by flood disasters due to improvement
of weather forecasting systems and promotion of land
conservation and flood control projects over many
years. However, the amount of general assets damaged
in flooded areas has greatly increased in recent years
(Figure 4-2). Additionally, as a trend of the last thirty
years, downpours whose rainfall was recorded more
than 100mm/hr tend to increase throughout the country
(Figure 4-3).
The increasing trend of downpours in recent years
requires the strengthening of countermeasures for quick
and smooth evacuation and relief activities assuming
the occurrence of enormous floods. The Central Disaster
Management Council* is working on the analysis of
anticipated situations and the review of countermeasures
against large-scale flood disasters that are supposed to
Table 4-1 Major disasters of meteorological/hydrological
origin since Oct. 2006
Date
2006
Oct.
6-9
Event
Depression
Casualty
killed /
missing
injured
Damage to Housing
half
collapsed
collapsed
1 43 1 18 293
Nov.7 Tornado in Saroma 9 31 7 7 -
damaged
under
water
2007
Jul.
5-16
Aug.
2-4
Sep.
4-7
Sep.
15-18
Typhoon MAN-YI (T0704)
and heavy rainfall
in monsoon rain front
7 79 26 26 420
Typhoon USAGI (T0705) 0 30 2 8 146
Typhoon FITOW (T0709) 3 90 10 27 415
Typhoon NARI (T0711)
and heavy rainfall
in rain front
4 7 19 239 401
161