Observed the 2023 Kiso San-river Combined Flood Fighting Exercise

The event was held on May 21, 2023, but it's been almost 10 months 💦 Hi, it's time for the Dumb Log.

If you like dams and doing this and that, there are a lot of things you may be interested in. One of them is the "Flood Fighting Exercise. This is an event that is announced every year before the flooding season, mainly through social networking accounts of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

An event is not a play event. It is an "exercise," a practical training exercise. It is a comprehensive flood prevention exercise conducted by a coalition of communities in the lower reaches of the Kiso, Nagara, and Ibigawa Rivers, which are some of the most prominent rivers in Japan. Just by looking at the name of the exercise, you can tell that it is a large-scale exercise! You can sense that it is a large-scale exercise.

The venue was held between the Kiso and Nagara Rivers, in a place called the Tokai Plaza West Area of the National Kiso San-river Park. A large screen was prepared and a lot of people concerned were lined up, so the area was quite spacious.

Emergency vehicles were on display at the event. I would love to have a Unimog! I heard that you can drive it with a medium-sized driver's license, so I can drive it, too!

A lighting truck belonging to the Lower Kiso River Office, Chubu Regional Development Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It demonstrates its capabilities at nighttime disaster sites. The name "Kinoshita Lighting 3" is written on the front of the vehicle, which is "Kinoshita" for "Kiso" River Downstream Office.

This drainage pump truck has a total drainage capacity of 30 m3 per minute. It is used when flooding occurs during heavy rains.

A high-mobility vehicle belonging to the 35th Regular Regiment, as the Ground Self-Defense Force also participated in the exercise. Motorcycles can also be seen in the back.

And finally, the opening ceremony. Governor Omura of Aichi Prefecture was also present as a guest of honor.

In front of where the opening ceremony was taking place, the moon wheel and kamadan kogyo were being prepared.

Many things are going on at the same time. Press conferences and web conferencing systems are being used to share a sense of crisis, while on the other side of the hallfloodBoats were being assembled for storm surge protection.

River patrol by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism river patrol cars. This is used to gather information. In parallel, sandbags are prepared along the banks. Students from Fujinami Junior High School in Tsushima City were also preparing sandbags.

At this time, an emergency alert area mail distribution is also sent out, and all smartphones ring at the same time.

Emergency bulletin came! (Drill)# Kiso-Mikawa Combined Flood Fighting Exercise pic.twitter.com/YQG0CEVJDp

- Dampedia :: Dampedia [Official] (@dampedia) May 21, 2023

It was announced here and there in advance that an emergency bulletin would be distributed, but unfortunately, many people did not know about it, and the keyword "Kiso River flooding" became a trending topic on Twitter. There was a circular circulating in my hometown, too. Well, young people don't see it. They probably don't follow accounts of local governments, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, etc.

Kiso River flooding" is trending. A number of people made a mistake in the emergency mail distribution drill. The river office "made as much as possible known to the public.

The distribution drill had been publicized in advance through the municipality's official Twitter and public relations, but many people were not aware of it.

www.huffingtonpost.jp

But I guess they are rather uninterested in disaster prevention. I felt that many of them were not calm enough to see the word "drill. Well, in a way, it was a good thing that it brought various things to light.

And the construction of the kamadan construction. This is the kind of thing I wanted to see. Other moon ring construction and sheet stretching construction were also going on next door.

Car-SAT is a system that transmits images captured by moving cameras to a base station in real time via a communications satellite, and sends video, audio, location, and monitoring information from a moving vehicle to a base station connected to an integrated communications network via a communications satellite. Car-SAT is a system that transmits images captured by a moving camera to a base station via a communications satellite in real time, and transmits video, audio, location, and monitoring information from a moving vehicle to a base station connected to an integrated communications network via a communications satellite, and audio and control information from the base station to a moving vehicle, according to the specifications of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

In addition, a drone was deployed.

Drainage by a drainage pump truck is also taking place. Since it is a training exercise, it seems that the water pumped up from the Nagara River is once stored in a container for a buffer and then drained from there again. (Sorry if I'm wrong.)

Helicopters will also be present. This is also a survey of the damage.

Road patrol cars of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Aichi Prefectural Police patrol cars, fire department command vehicles, craft vehicles, and ambulances arrive one after another.

There seems to be a landslide. Oh my god! People are buried alive!

Rescues people buried alive and transports them to emergency medical care.

After rescuing those in need of help, the collapsed earth and sand are removed with a jumbo.

This allows emergency vehicles to pass safely.

Since the levee could not really be broken, an embankment was built inside the venue to resemble a levee, and blocks were dropped from it.

It is amazing to see the huge concrete blocks rolling down.

The rough cutoff of the breached levee is also completed! # Kiso-Mikawa Combined Flood Fighting Exercise pic.twitter.com/tVI7eK6Vb9

- Dampedia :: Dampedia [Official] (@dampedia) May 21, 2023

There are many other training programs going on here and there, but I could not hold them all by myself. It is only natural, of course, since many things happen simultaneously in an actual disaster.

It was also clear to me that by conducting exercises like this, not only the government but also the construction industry and medical personnel are united in their efforts to deal with flood damage when it occurs. The purpose of the exercise was "to improve and pass on flood prevention techniques, spread knowledge and understanding of flood prevention, and raise awareness of flood prevention," so I could understand that not only conventional measures but also new technologies such as Car-SAT are being introduced every day.

Flood control exercises are always held somewhere every year, so if you have the opportunity, you should visit.