Typhoon Nabi blows

[dimwit]

Well, I'm stuck at home with no classes to teach, a kid to babysit and the winds are blowing something fierce. Just love typhoons!

TOKYO, Sept 6 (Reuters) - A powerful typhoon pummelled southwestern Japan with torrential rain and high winds on Tuesday, causing floods and landslides, paralysing transport and forcing people to flee their homes.

A woman drowned after falling from a ferry and at least five people were missing in landslides, coast guards and police said. Ten others were injured.

story here

I wonder what the hell the ferry was doing running? Most ferries cancelled during typhoons for that very reason.

[Taro Toporific]

I'm stuck at home with no classes to teach, a kid to babysit and the winds are blowing something fierce. Just love typhoons! ....

"I love typhoons. They bring the one thing Japanese lack....CHAOS."
---Mineshima-sensei, my judo teacher since age 10


NHK TV was just saying that more than 50 have been injured.

Five dead or missing as typhoon pounds Japan
KAGOSHIMA, Japan (AFP) - A powerful typhoon has pounded Japan, leaving five people dead or missing, as 100,000 people were ordered to flee their homes to escape violent winds and mudslides.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called off campaign stops scheduled for Wednesday ahead of the weekend elections as his government set up a crisis management center.
Nabi, packing winds of up to 144 kilometers (89 miles) per hour, was located near Ushibuka on Kyushu's western coast at midday (0300 GMT Monday), Japan's meteorological agency....

[dimwit]

"I love typhoons. They bring the one thing Japanese lack....CHAOS."
---Mineshima-sensei, my judo teacher since age 10

Japanese lack chaos!?!?! The man obviously is unaware of Japanese urban planning.

Typhoons do actually serve a good urban renewal function as they are great at removing rotting wood, old aluminium siding and dilapidated buildings. Not much of that so far, but I think the 8 typhoons we had last year pretty much cleaned everything up.

[IkemenTommy]

Typhoons do actually serve a good urban renewal function as they are great at removing rotting wood, old aluminium siding and dilapidated buildings. Not much of that so far, but I think the 8 typhoons we had last year pretty much cleaned everything up.

Try saying that when your house gets blown away / flooded like they did in New Orleans.
But I take your point about the nonexisting J-urban housing and planning. Unfortunately, even some of the newer residential buildings still suck when it comes to proper zoning. That's why it is not uncommon to see mental hospitals and truck stops built right in the middle of residential areas. Even after the typhoon, they'll just build shit right on top of it and usually costs the insurance companies money.

[dimwit]

[GuyJean]

I don't really feel huge amounts of sympathy for those who built homes and casinos along the Gulf Coast..

Have sympathy for the dolts who choose to live on a large island made from four active tectonic plates? Imagine the stupidity of someone not born there, but then chooses to live there..

GJ

[dimwit]

[GuyJean]

[dimwit]

The death toll is now been reduced to 4. Apparently the women who drown by falling off a ferry in Takamatsu was not considered a typhoon death. Sound like a case of trying to avoid liablity. I've anyways had a sneaking suspicion that police and criminal use typhoon to get rid of a lot of loose ends.

GJ while hurricanes and earthquake can not be prevented, with proper planning their effects can be mitigated. In the case of the Mississippi and Alabama coastline, Hurricane Camille in 1968 should have alerted them to the clear dangers of storm surge. To prevent storm surge from doing massive amounts of property damage you can take one of two approaches. You can armor the coastline and build large ugly breakwaters which we are all so familar with in Japan. This approach requires long term maintainance and is environmental damaging. The other approach is the set the shore as hazardland, prevent any structures from been build on it and use it as a natural barrier to absorb storm surge. This can have great economic cost as it limits land usage. The Gulf Coast seems to have taken neither approach, allowing development of housing without putting in proper shoreline armoring, essentially ensuring that when a big hurricane did occur it would produced maximium damage.

[L S]

When all is over and done, we will sall ee how big business/developers/oil, political interests at all levels from city to white house, redesignation of federal, state and local funds all led up to this.

The problem was understood, but ignored. Everyone in power is focused on the short term political needs. Who wants to fund projects that are 10-15 years in duration if there is no political pay-offs for this years elecetion. Who off-sets the big business lobbyists pressure at all levels? Where does money come from when budgets get slashed and have to be used for immediate need items?

Blame can be spread all around and it's a real reflection of how broken the political system is in the US.

...one more bug hurricane, natural disaster or terrorist act in the next 3 months will break the system.
We are not ready.

[groovewonder]

You guys stole my typhoon...

Us guys on Okinawa were all looking forward to getting a few days off work but nooo, Sunday night the typhoon decides to veer to the right and hit you guys instead...

Typhoons suck. Not one single typhoon vacation this whole year.

[IkemenTommy]

I hear ya. I wish it came down hard on a weekday during day time instead of night.

Did you guys notice how the media made a small deal out of this storm but it actually did a lot more damage and caused more deaths than the one before it? Those pig fuckers.