An Indian describes Typhoon 19 (Hagibis) in Tokyo

Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we’re still at the mercy of nature.
– Neil deGrasse Tyson

A night before the typhoon 19, also called as Hagibis was about to hit Japan, it was deafening silence in the air. It was really like “Toofan se pehle ka sannata”.

Some people reported that the color of sky was full of colors of blues and pinks…

The typhoon was moving slowly but steadily towards Shizuoka. In our past experiences also, most of the typhoon happen to change the direction and the whole hype becomes worth less. But this time it was different. The size, speed and direction were unprecedented and this time everyone was genuinely praying it changes its course. Before it hit the shores of Japan, it was carrying winds at the speed of 270 kms/hour which is similar to a Shinkansen. But this time, it was adamant and was on its course to hit the main island.

The supermarkets/convenience stores were also pondering on closing down on the day of typhoon.

From Friday night, oct 11,
People started stocking up food/water and other essentials which they might need predicting a power outage, gas outage or assuming that they won’t be able to go out during typhoon.

It was still not noticeable till Sat afternoon and tyohoon has not hit the land. A tweet on a twitter triggered people taping up their glass window panes rapped in crosses to keep the glass not shattered in all directions in case typhoon hits directly.

Slowly the rains and winds started by 12:00 of sat and feeling of real uneasiness started to spread. By this time lot of community members assembled in common homes to make themselves bit comfortable emotionally and also be together in case anything extreme happens.

Lot of community members reported they parked their cars in nearby Supermarkets higher floors to avoid flooding of their vehicles. In Edogawa-Ku, Sunamo mall & Sunny mall were the Go-to places.

NHK, this time did a great job by continuously sharing the information in Japanese and English. They also had a app which informed the citizens continuously. Edogawa-Ku twitter handle also broadcasted main alerts along with people receiving direct alerts from the telecom operator.

Typhoon hit the lands by 19:30 and from there strong winds and rains started to make their presence feel. This continued for couple of hours. It appeared that this will continue for whole night.

There were power failure reported from Kasai and Minami-Sunamachi area.

There was a crucial time when it changed a bit of angle from Kawasaki where it spared Tokyo a bit. By 21:50, the typhoon was crossing north of Tokyo and in another couple of hours the strength of wind began to weaken in the Tokyo area. By midnight, it was calm and lot of people returned to their homes as well. Lot of others retuned next morning.

But typhoon, even though was kind to the people in core of Tokyo where the life has come to normal already, it created havoc in other parts of Japan.

Cities and towns across the country — including Nagano, Niigata, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures — were inundated by flood waters after levees failed in the face of record rainfall,forcing many people to abandon submerged homes. The damage could worsen in the coming days as the water levels may rise along flooded rivers.

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 200,000 households in eastern and central Japan were left without power. Among those, as of 3 p.m. Sunday, about 86,100 households were without power in Chiba Prefecture, which was heavily damaged by Typhoon Faxai just last month. About 52,300 such households in Nagano Prefecture and about 23,500 in Kanagawa Prefecture were also without power.
Train operators gradually resumed services by Sunday afternoon after suspensions on Saturday.

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