Features of the Northern
Kyushu Heavy Rainfall Disaster

Damage Situation and Government
Response to the Northern Kyushu
Heavy Rainfall Disaster of July 2017
Cabinet Office
Overview of the rainfall

Outline of the damage

On July 5–6, warm and very humid
winds flowed toward a stationary
seasonal rain front in the vicinity of theTsushima Straits, which formed andmaintained a linear rainband bringing
continued torrential rain to the same
location. As a result, northern Kyushu
received record rainfall.

This record heavy rain caused casualtiesof 37 deaths and 4 missing persons (asof September 29) as well as serious
housing damage including many fully- or
half-destroyed houses with inundation
above floor level, in the two prefecturesof Fukuoka and Oita. Great damage wasalso caused to roads, railways, lifeline
utilities such as electricity and watersupplies, and agricultural land andfacilities which formed the foundation ofpeople’slivelihoods.
Inaddition,
residential areas and agricultural land
were inundated with flood wood resulting
from hillside collapses caused by thetorrential rain, which generated a large
amount of disaster waste including thisflood wood and sediment.

In northern Kyushu, the total rainfall for
July 5–6 exceeded 500 millimeters at its
maximum, and some areas had heavy
rain surpassing the normal monthly
rainfall of July in just two days. Asakura
City, Fukuoka, and Hita City, Oita,
recorded new 24-hour rainfall highs as
the heavy rain broke previous records.
Period rainfall distribution map(between 00:00 on July 5 and 24:00 on July 6)

Rainfall timeline chart(between 00:00 on July 5 and 24:00 on July 6)
Asakura, Asakura City, Fukuoka
Hourly rainfall (left axis)
Total rainfall (right axis)

Asakura, Asakura City,Fukuoka
586.0 mm

Normal monthly rainfall in July (right axis)

Period rainfall: 586.0 mm

Ashibe, Iki City, Nagasaki
372.5 mmMount Hiko, Soeda Town of
Tagawa-gun, Fukuoka
314.0 mm

Normal monthly rainfall in July: 354.1 mm(Date)

Asakura, Asakura City, Fukuoka

Rank

Top five 24-hour rainfall (between 00:00 on July 5 and 24:00 on July 6)

Shiroishi, Shiroishi
Town of
Kishima-gun, Saga
354.0 mm

Hita, Hita City,Oita
402.5 mm*The top five locations and their rainfalls

RainfallPrefecture

Municipality

Place nameDate

1st Fukuoka

Asakura CityAsakura

Jul. 6

2nd Oita

Hita City

Hita

Jul. 6

3rd Nagasaki

Iki City

AshibeJul. 6

4th Saga

Shiroishi Town
Shiroishi
of Kishima-gun

Jul. 65th Oita

Nakatsu City

Jul. 6Yabakei

Map, chart and table source: Japan Meteorological Agency website

TimeFeatures of the Northern Kyushu
Heavy Rainfall Disaster

The many damaged houses andsevered roads in different areas caused
more than 2,000 people to become
evacuees just after the disaster.

Damaged houses and flood wood
(Asakura City, Fukuoka)

also tried to directly assess the damage
and problems in the affected areas
through dispatching government survey
missions led by the former Minister ofState for Disaster Management, Jun
Matsumoto, and the former Senior
Vice-Minister, Yohei Matsumoto, toFukuoka and Oita respectively, whichwere devastated, and Prime Minister
Abe’s visit to the affected areas on July
12. Then, in close cooperation with themunicipalities,
thegovernment
responded together to problems such as
rescuing people, improving the living
environment in evacuation centers
including taking precautions against theheat, and the accelerated treatment ofdisaster waste including flood wood,
which was hindering recovery in affectedareas, by dispatching staff in charge
from the relevant ministries to thegovernment’s
on-siteliaisonandcoordination office which was set up in
Fukuoka.

Bridge washed away on the Kyudai Line
(Hita City, Oita)

Government response
Before the Northern Kyushu Heavy
Rainfall Disaster, the government,
fearing a disaster caused by theseasonal rain front or typhoon No. 3,
held a disaster security meeting of theministries concerned on July 3 to ensure
its unified security preparedness, andthe Minister of State for Disaster
Management called for the people toproactively secure their own safety. Assoon as the disaster occurred, thegovernment held meetings involving therelevant cabinet ministers and disaster
response meetings daily to assess thedamage and share or confirm thegovernment response. The government

Prime Minister Abe, visiting Haki Hoshimaru,
Asakura City (Photo: Provided by Cabinet Public
Relations Office) on July 12

Features of the Northern Kyushu
Heavy Rainfall Disaster

Talks between the then Minister of State forDisaster Management Matsumoto and thoseaffected (July 9)

Minister of State for Disaster Management
Okonogi visiting the emergency temporary
housing in Asakura City on August 22

Toward recovery and reconstruction
For this disaster, the Disaster Relief Act
applied to Asakura City, Toho Village of
Asakura-gun, and Soeda Town of
Tagawa-gun, Fukuoka, as well as Hita
City and Nakatsu City, Oita while the Act
Concerning Support for Reconstructing
Livelihood of Disaster Victims applied toall municipalities of Fukuoka, and HitaCity, Oita.
In light of this, the government
dispatched Cabinet Office staff to eachsite to hold explanatory meetings on
utilization of the Disaster Relief Act, andexplanatory meetings on the survey for
housing damage certification and issues
concerning disaster certificates based on
the survey results. The government also
tried to provide the prefectural
governments involved, the affectedmunicipalities and the people withsupport to ensure immediate housing forvictims such as offering emergency
temporary housing or emergency repairs
to their houses.

In addition, the government, considering
this disaster as a series of heavy raindisasters caused by the seasonal rain
front that summer, adopted its
designation as a serious disaster at a
Cabinet meeting on August 8, andpromulgated and enforced a government
ordinance on August 10. In order to allow
the devastated municipalities to promptly
work on recovery and reconstruction freeof financial worries, the government
announced “designation forecasts” forthose which met the criteria for serious
disaster designation on July 21 without
waiting for the end of the national rainyseason (August 2).
Furthermore, in order to announce thedesignation
forecasts
early,
thegovernment cooperated fully with thedamage survey. Specifically, it provided
technicalsupportbydispatching
TEC-FORCE from MLIT and experts in
disaster restoration techniques to theaffected areas, and assessed thedamage situation using drones andaerial photos.
Serious disaster designation andapplicable measures for the heavy raincaused by the seasonal rain front thatsummer including this disaster are asfollows.

Features of the Northern Kyushu
Heavy Rainfall Disaster○ Serious disaster (Hongeki or national)
designation and applicable measures
 Thefollowingmeasuresapplicable all over the country.

were(1) Special measures for subsidizing
disaster recovery projects on
agricultural land, etc.
(2) Special provisions for subsidizing
disaster recovery projects on
joint-use facilities in agriculture,forestry and fisheries(3) Inclusion of principal and interest
redemption on small disaster bonds
in relation to basic fiscal demand○ Serious disaster (Kyokugeki orregional) designation and applicablemeasures The
followingmeasureswereapplicable to the four municipalities of
Asakura City, Toho Village of
Asakura-gun and Soeda Town of
Tagawa-gun, Fukuoka, and Hita City,Oita.
(1) Special financial assistance fordisaster recovery projects on publicworks facilities(2) Inclusion of principal and interest
redemption on small disaster bonds
in relation to basic fiscal demand Thefollowingmeasures
wereapplicable to the two municipalities of
Asakura City and Toho Village of
Asakura-gun, Fukuoka.
(1) Special
provisionsfordisaster-related
guarantees
inaccordance with the Small Business
Credit Insurance Act

Cooperation and collaboration withNPOs
In times of disaster, volunteer groups
including NPOs with their techniques,
know-how and experience in disaster
response come running to the affectedareas and provide detailed assistance tothe victims. In this disaster, a lot of NPOs
also came running to the affected areas.
In order to ensure cooperation andcollaboration with these NPOs, ameeting to share information between
the government and NPOs sponsored by
Japan Voluntary Organizations Active inDisaster (JVOAD) was held at theFukuoka prefectural government officebuilding on July 9. About 50 people
involved in NPOs, Fukuoka prefecturalgovernmentandCabinet
Officeparticipated in this meeting, which
created opportunities to regularly share
information including setting up disastervolunteer centers, understanding theneeds for supplies, and reporting onactivities at the evacuation centers.
Triggered by this, “Meetings to share
information among supporters during theNorthern
KyushuHeavyRainfall
Disaster of July 2017” were held every
evening from July 12 in Asakura City.
JVOAD, about 20 volunteer groups
including NPOs, Fukuoka prefectural
government, Asakura City government,
the Council of Social Welfare, andCabinet Office all participated in themeetings to report and coordinate
activity areas and details as well as tocoordinate
mutualcomplementary
activities. Cabinet Office coordinatedwith the prefectural government, etc. toensure cooperation and collaboration
between the NPOs and the prefecturalgovernment.
NPOs’ disaster response activities
covered a lot of ground such asproviding assistance at evacuation
centers, removing sediment and flood
wood from houses and agricultural land,

Features of the Northern Kyushu
Heavy Rainfall Disastersupporting stay-at-home-victims (victims
outside the evacuation centers), andsupporting temporary housing andprivate rental housing-turned-temporary
housing units. They also provided foodand supplies aid as well as supportedchildren and elderly people. Some NPOs
had a good track record in providing
support during past disasters withenough support know-how to conduct
activities while taking advantage of theirown strengths.
At the information sharing meetings, a lotof challenges were also presented.
There were diverse challenges such as
improving the eating environment inevacuation centers (eating space,encouraging a voluntary hot meal
service, and adjusting the number ofpacked meals), improving the bedding(futonsor
blankets,mattresses,utilization of cardboard beds, etc., andimproving hygiene), creating children’s
play spaces (play parks), setting up
showers and changing rooms, removalof sediment and flood wood fromdamaged houses and agricultural land,and preventive measures against heatstroke while working. In the information
sharing meetings, the attendees alsodeliberated solutions to these challenges.
As a result, various different cooperative
approaches were taken.

Removing mud from a house(Asakura City, Fukuoka)

Conclusion
In Asakura City and Toho Village of
Asakura-gun, Fukuoka, part of theconstruction-type emergency temporary
housing was completed and people
started to move in, accelerating thespeed of recovery of their former lives.
Meanwhile, even as of writing (in late
September), more than 50 people still
have to live inconvenient lives in theevacuation centers.
We will continue to promote activities
towardcommunity
reconstruction
including the securing of housing forvictims, the restoration of infrastructure
and the reconstruction of livelihoods.