Rainy Season starts around June in Hyogo. With it comes (spoiler) heavy rain – sometimes Typhoons which can lead to flooding and landslides. Here are some important applications or websites to have on you in case of emergencies!
- The Hyogo Disaster Prevention Application
The Hyogo Disaster Prevention Organisation (ひょうご防災ネット) has released an app that will inform you about weather warnings happening in your city(cities). You can choose up to 3 cities you want alerts in. The application is most importantly available in English (as well as other languages) It is also free . This app will especially be useful to you during the upcoming rainy/typhoon season.
The application is available to download for both android and apple devices.
Android and Apple - Yahoo River Level Information
This website is great when you want to see the river levels near you, during Typhoon season rivers are at risk of flooding and if the water reaches a certain level you may receive an evacuation notice!
During Typhoon Jebi in 2018 the river I lived nearby reached emergency warnings at 2am! I also couldn’t use the train for 4 days because the river flooded the tracks! This website was useful for me because I could find out when I could actually go to work! - Yahoo Disaster Application (android &iphone)
If you have the yahoo disaster application you will get notifications about when water levels are very high/ when you are in a landslide risky area and if you need to evacuate . The application will also inform you the closest evacuation centers you can go to. - Here is a good website about flood tips and preparation
- Hazard Maps – you can sort by prefecture/city
- JR Trains Status – Heavy Rain leads to Train suspensions, particularly on JR lines. You can use this site to check the status. If you cannot get to work due to train suspensions check your contract for transport failure leave so you don’t have to use annual leave. My train line (Kishin) often goes down because of rain, sometimes I cannot go to work so my CO puts my leave as “transport leave” until I am able to go to work!
