KyushuCalanthe
Just call me Tom
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2008
- Messages
- 8,183
- Reaction score
- 467
Starting midday July 24 and ending around three days later, the Fukuoka area received flooding rains that will go down in the books as some of the most extreme recorded to date. In Fukuoka City proper, totals equalled or exceeded 40 cm, or about 16 inches. The valley I live in got considerably more, up to 100 cm (around 40 inches) and left in its wake a path of destruction.
I went out for a ride today to see what the flood damage was. Several areas were inaccessible due to road wash outs and landslides. Here are a few shots I managed to get.
The valley I live on the edge of has a fairly large river with numerous, but small tributary streams. Here is one that overran its banks and flooded out the street and nearby fields just the day before. Even today, the water level was around 2 meters above normal. Usually this little creek is no more than a trickle a few centimeters deep:
One of the worst problems in Japan with rain events like this is landslides. Here is a typical one on a hillside adjacent to a small reservoir. Such slides absolutely destroy everything in their path and that is the main reason why there are few houses in the mountains:
Here is the reservoir all muddied from the intense erosion upstream. The water is usually blue-green:
A beautiful, gentle creek with lovely rapids and waterfalls feeds the reservoir. Today, part of the creek is now blocked with a landslide that took a large patch of moso bamboo directly into the center of it.
Just upstream from the last shot is a beautiful triple cascade waterfall alongside a shrine. Usually the plunge pool is a nice place to swim and the fall is mellow enough such that you can sit directly in it without getting washed off. Today it was a different scene. The little rock beach had been severely eroded away and good sized trees littered the watercourse. What was impressive was that their bark had been nearly completely scraped off from the power of the water. A day earlier, the water was much higher than pictured here, at least by a meter. Must have been scary at that time!
I don't think this flood was a record, but it was probably one of the worst this valley has seen historically. Only two people were killed when a landslide took out their home. Today is cool, like early autumn, and that is supposed to continue on tomorrow. Yes, we are having a strange summer so far.
I went out for a ride today to see what the flood damage was. Several areas were inaccessible due to road wash outs and landslides. Here are a few shots I managed to get.
The valley I live on the edge of has a fairly large river with numerous, but small tributary streams. Here is one that overran its banks and flooded out the street and nearby fields just the day before. Even today, the water level was around 2 meters above normal. Usually this little creek is no more than a trickle a few centimeters deep:
One of the worst problems in Japan with rain events like this is landslides. Here is a typical one on a hillside adjacent to a small reservoir. Such slides absolutely destroy everything in their path and that is the main reason why there are few houses in the mountains:
Here is the reservoir all muddied from the intense erosion upstream. The water is usually blue-green:
A beautiful, gentle creek with lovely rapids and waterfalls feeds the reservoir. Today, part of the creek is now blocked with a landslide that took a large patch of moso bamboo directly into the center of it.
Just upstream from the last shot is a beautiful triple cascade waterfall alongside a shrine. Usually the plunge pool is a nice place to swim and the fall is mellow enough such that you can sit directly in it without getting washed off. Today it was a different scene. The little rock beach had been severely eroded away and good sized trees littered the watercourse. What was impressive was that their bark had been nearly completely scraped off from the power of the water. A day earlier, the water was much higher than pictured here, at least by a meter. Must have been scary at that time!
I don't think this flood was a record, but it was probably one of the worst this valley has seen historically. Only two people were killed when a landslide took out their home. Today is cool, like early autumn, and that is supposed to continue on tomorrow. Yes, we are having a strange summer so far.
