"No. 119 does not stop" Fukushima Koriyama, October 29, 17:49
At the firefighting headquarters in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, where the Abukuma River was flooded due to Typhoon No. 19, the person responsible for responding to reports from residents revealed the urgent situation at that time.
At the Koriyama Fire Department, which has jurisdiction over 2 cities and 2 towns, such as Koriyama City, which suffered severe damage due to the heavy rain caused by Typhoon No. 19, approximately 400 employees were involved in rescue operations and reporting.
Tetsunori Suzuki, Assistant Manager of the Communications Command Division, who was in charge at the Fire Department from the 12th to the 14th of this month, told NHK about the situation at the time.
According to Suzuki, reports started to increase from the night of the 12th and peaked around 8am on the 13th of the night.
Usually, the number of reports is about 70 per day, but 79 reports were sent to the peak in just one hour.
Regarding the situation at that time, Mr. Suzuki said, “No. 119 did not stop ringing. I experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake and 8.5 floods in 1986, but I had experience that the report did not stop ringing over such a wide area for a long time. There is no ".
Mr. Suzuki was particularly impressed by a report from an elderly man left alone in a one-story house at midnight on the 12th.
Mr. Suzuki said, “The story of a man said that every time he went, the water came to the chest area and the water was taken to the neck. However, the area seems to exceed 2 meters. It was a flooded area and the water flow was so fast that we couldn't go to the rescue. From here, we had to call "Please stay high even if you break the ceiling." I told you.
The fire department went to rescue the next morning, and the man was safely rescued.
Mr. Suzuki recalled, “There were many situations where members could not get close, and those who were seeking help were not able to get help right away, and it was really painful to tell them about it.”
In addition, many roads were closed, and some hospitals were flooded and could not accept patients, making it extremely difficult to respond to patients who needed emergency transport due to hypothermia.
Mr. Suzuki talked about the lessons learned from this flood, “I thought it was necessary to evacuate early. The disaster would be delayed after it happened, so I would like to call for an early evacuation before that.” .