The government of Japan and its citizens know well what torrential rains, typhoons and natural hazards mean in a country that has had a meteorological culture since school and which issues clear prevention warnings to its population, particularly refined since 2017 The latest high alert, a possible mega-earthquake in August, led the government to advise its citizens to review their evacuation options and urge all those who did not have them to leave the area. area where the earthquake was expected. cataclysm, which ultimately did not happen.
Prevention and measures to avoid deaths and damage are internalized in the country and were exported to the destructive DANA of October 29. On Monday 28, a day before a flood claimed the lives of 219 people and in almost all of Horta Sud de València, the Japanese embassy in Madrid launched a massive email, “consular letters to Japanese residents in Spain to alert them to the situation” of DANA, as confirmed by the embassy to elDiario.es and advanced by Newtral to deny certain hoaxes that were spreading on the networks about this Japanese alert. He also sent it to tourists who had registered on the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website as visitors. According to the latest INE register, 6,068 Japanese citizens live in Spain, mainly in Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Valencia.
In the email, the Japanese Embassy in Madrid simply included the warnings it had published on its civil protection website (under the Ministry of the Interior) and which were based on the warnings and forecasts of the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the same one whose seriousness was minimized by the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, the one competent to manage emergencies, since in Spain it is the autonomies that are in charge.
In addition to summarizing to its citizens clearly and by day and area what phenomena they would face – “the 29th will be the day of greatest climatic deterioration, with forecasts of torrential rains and thunderstorms in the following areas: Area of the Strait of Gibraltar, eastern Andalusia, the region of Murcia, eastern Castile-La Mancha, the Valencian Community”, gave clear advice.
First of all, he warned the Japanese in Spain that, as AEMET always warns, “this type of climate change is difficult to predict accurately and he recommends keeping up to date with the most recent information.” He then issued a series of specific warnings. For example, “prepare for emergencies,” “keep yourself safe by avoiding unnecessary risks,” or “check weather and traffic conditions carefully before traveling and determine whether it is safe to travel.”
After the devastating flood caused by torrential rains and overflowing ravines in the province of Valencia, the Japanese embassy sent a second massive email on the 30th, recalling the red alerts – and explaining with a numerical expression what level that meant. , the maximum in this case – and with recommendations to its citizens, including informing the embassy and their families if they find themselves in an emergency situation.
Japan has a meteorological agency whose risk scale has direct orders to the population associated with it. The lowest level, yellow, prompts you to clearly indicate whether you can evacuate. The next one is red and people with low mobility must evacuate – in the case of Valencia, the group where there has been the most mortality is those over 70 years old. The purple level orders the evacuation of the entire population from places at risk. Black, at the highest level, warns that there is a “risk to life” and orders people to move to safety “immediately”.
