Key Points
- Significant structural damage is visible throughout Hikawa Town, with many traditional Japanese houses partially or fully collapsed.
- National Route 3 has sustained severe road damage, including large cracks, uplifted asphalt, and dangerous drops in the road surface.
- Widespread power outages have disabled traffic lights at major intersections, leading to heavy congestion and requiring manual traffic control by police.
- Emergency response units from neighboring regions, including fire departments from Hiroshima, have arrived to assist in the disaster zone.
Full Transcript (English)
Narrator: Ah, the impact around Hikawa Town is quite significant. On both sides, you can see several traditional Japanese houses that have collapsed, some starting from the second floor. There are several such buildings visible.
Narrator: There is a regional emergency fire brigade. This one is a team from Hiroshima.
Narrator: Because the traffic lights have stopped, police officers are using hand signals to manage the flow of cars on this national highway. As evening approaches, the volume of traffic has increased, and congestion is starting to build up. Since the signals aren’t working, they are guiding cars with hand signals as you can see. We are currently heading from Misato toward the center of Yatsushiro City. This is National Route 3. The time is now almost 7:00 PM.
Narrator: We are on National Route 3, near Ono in Hikawa Town. There is a lot of traffic congestion. In some places, the road is torn apart with cracks and uplifted sections, and there are quite deep steps in the surface—the impact is very visible in this area. As you can see here, perhaps because of a fault line, the road surfaces have collided and uplifted. Over here too, the road condition is quite poor.
Narrator: It’s now past 7:00 PM, and with the high volume of traffic, heavy congestion has formed.
Narrator: This is an area called Kawahara, and this is the Hikawa River. Around here, we can see several houses that are tilting or have collapsed. We’ve seen several such homes up to this point.
Narrator: And once again, the traffic lights are out. There are no police officers stationed at this large intersection on the national highway. Likely because of that, a long line of traffic has formed.
