10 September 2015 (00:43 UTC-07 Tango 01)/19 Shahrivar 1394/26 Dhu al-Qa’dah 1436/28 Yi-You 4713

“This is a scale of downpour that we have not experienced before. Grave danger could be imminent.”-Takuya Deshimaru, Japan Meteorological Agency

At 13:30 hours Japan time, in Ibaraki Prefecture a levee holding back the big Kinugawa river burst, literally washing away Joso City.  Video shows helicopters trying to rescue people from the roofs of their homes in strong winds.

Tochigi Prefecture reports more than 60 centimetres (two feet) of rain in the past 24 hours. 90-thousand people ordered to evacuate, 80 -thousand told to prepare to leave.   Kanuma City reports mudslides and missing people.  A hotel has collapsed.

Fukushima Prefecture, home of the on-going nuclear disaster known as Fukushima Daiichi, is also reporting record level rain.  This means massive amounts of radiation contamination is now flooding into the Pacific Ocean.

Saitama Prefecture reports record level of rain, more than 25% of an entire year’s worth dumped in 24 hours.  Heavy rain continues.

The current flooding is blamed on former typhoon Etau and former typhoon Kilo (Etau and Kilo are now straddling Japan’s eastern and western coastlines, dumping record levels of rain on the island country), but Japan has been hit by several big tropical storms this year. Back in 1996 researchers Nobuo Mimura and Eiichi Kawaguchi predicted Japan would be hit by flooding and a rise in the ocean level, and they were not taking into account the melting of the polar ice caps.

A 2013 study warned Japan that it only takes a small rise in ocean level to have catastrophic effects when combined with tropical storms.  Japan will also suffer increased cases of liquefaction.

Another Japanese study concluded that reversing human caused pollution will have no effect on the coming radical climate changes!

Read The Japan Times article about the studies here.

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