Typhoons, evacuation and COVID precautions
By Denise
@petatonicsca (7070)
Japan
September 5, 2020 9:32pm CST
So Typhoon #9 kind of sideswiped southwest Japan and Kyushu, but #10 is heading straight for Kyushu, hitting probably Sunday night. It's Typhoon Haishen for those who go by those names instead of numbers.
It's hard enough to get elderly people, especially islanders (on the outlying small volcanic islands in the Ryukyu Arc which are part of Kagoshima Prefecture). It's even harder to get anyone to evacuate to a typical shelter situation, which is where everyone set up a spot in the school gym, all packed in. The Japanese government foresaw problems and has contracted a bunch of local hotels, which of course are mainly sitting there empty because no travel is happening, to take in evacuees during a disaster (typhoons, flooding, earthquakes and even volcanic disasters, which are not so likely). So here we are. Well, I'm not, because I'm in Tokyo, but my friends in Kyushu have to decide whether to evacuate to a hotel, a friend or relative's house on higher ground, etc.
The traditional school gyms are also open as shelters with social distancing protocols, so only a small number of families can enter. The local government encourages people with elderly and small children to evacuate to some shelter well before the typhoon hits. So they have part of today to get there.
I hope everyone is ok.
Do you know where your local shelters are in case of whatever disaster could strike you? Mine is my own school!
3 people like this
4 responses
@GardenGerty (169448)
• United States
6 Sep 20
I do not think there are any public shelters in my small town. Our disasters would be likely to be wind, and tornado related. I am "up on the hill" and the town built a dam or levee or some such in the 1960's to stop the flooding in the lower parts.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
6 Sep 20
Well, if you are like my Midwestern town, your shelter is your basement. I have a few friends who have no basement and they go to the mall into the tornado shelter there if they know enough ahead of time.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
6 Sep 20
And by the way, my elementary school was destroyed by a tornado when I was in third grade. My family sheltered in our basement.
@JudyEv (381905)
• Rockingham, Australia
6 Sep 20
Thankfully it would be really rare that we'd need to evacuate. A major bushfire would be the most probable likelihood and I guess we'd be told where to go. Probably not our local town as, if we were under threat, it's highly likely our town would be too.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
6 Sep 20
At least you know. We haven't got enough large churches in Japan for them to be shelters. Most of ours are schools, and some community centers. The idea of hotels came after they started using them for recovering COVID patients who don't need a lot of medical intervention to keep them out of the needed hospital beds. There are always a doctor and nurses onsite and meals provided just like the hospital. It is good in two ways: keeps the medical system from being overwhelmed, and gives the hotels some business.
1 person likes this
@Nakitakona (59987)
• Philippines
6 Sep 20
Typhoon Hashien has visited us for one day and she has left with no casualties reported.





