KAWAGOE: After the worst of Typhoon Hagibis passed over this town north of Tokyo, Kazuo Saito made sure there was no water outside his house and went to bed.
He woke up a few times throughout the night to check, but by the time he woke for good on Sunday morning, the view outside his window was almost unrecognizable.
“There was a huge river flowing in front of me,” the 74-year-old said.
The storm, which made landfall in the Tokyo region late Saturday, had dumped record amounts of rain that caused rivers to overflow their banks, some of them damaged. It turned many neighborhoods in Kawagoe into swamps.
Crews were working across central and northern Japan on Monday to dig through mudslides and search riverbanks for those missing in the storm, which killed dozens of people and left thousands of homes on Japan’s main island flooded, damaged or without power. Some 30,000 people were in evacuation centers.
More than 200 rivers overflowed and inundated the typhoon-hit areas, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation. Hagibis caused damage to extensive areas, most likely because it hardly lost strength due to warmer-than-usual sea temperatures and became a super-sized typhoon, unlike usual autumn typhoons that wane while traveling north, experts said.
Saito, wearing work clothes and long rubber boots, said he was determined not to evacuate ahead of the storm or on Sunday despite the floodwaters because “this is my only home.” His wife, Sumiko, thought evacuating at that point was too late and more dangerous.
“I was terrified and my knees trembled,” she said.
As they waited, the waters gradually subsided, and on Monday they were able to come down from the second floor of their home. They were cleaning their dirt-covered front yard and sorting out mementos and furniture that were damaged when floodwaters reached nearly the ceiling of their garage.
“If I had known the water was to come this high, I could have evacuated them inside the house,” Kazuo Saito said.
The storm was the worst Saito could recall in all his years in Kawagoe. He said a tropical storm in 1999 that flooded more than 3,000 homes had floodwaters that were only waist-high.
“This time, it came up to here,” he said, raising his arm above his head and pointing to the dark line left by the water
At a nearby nursing home, dozens of residents were evacuated on rubber boats Monday, city officials said. On Sunday, more than 120 residents of Kings Garden, another care home for the elderly, were taken to safer facilities.
Hisako Satake, 87, who was among those evacuated from Kings Garden, was brought to a nearby elementary school where about 20 others had also taken shelter.
She said that when the floodwaters started seeping into the ground floor of her nursing home, she and other residents were escorted to a chapel on the second floor. They then lost running water and electricity.
“It was a bit of surprise,” Satake said, sitting on a folded futon mattress on the school gymnasium floor. “So we prayed, and that helped us to stay calm.”
Japan storm victims felt worst was over, then floods came
Japan storm victims felt worst was over, then floods came
- The storm, which made landfall in the Tokyo region late Saturday, had dumped record amounts of rain that caused rivers to overflow their banks
Homeless Muslims in southern Philippines observe Ramadan as month of trial
- Thousands lost their homes when parts of Bongao in Tawi-Tawi were burnt to ashes
- Many trying to fully observe the fasting month say they are grateful to be alive
Manila: As Annalexis Abdulla Dabbang was looking forward to observing the month of Ramadan with her family, just days before it began they lost everything when an enormous fire tore through whole neighborhoods of their city in the southernmost province of the Philippines.
Bongao is the capital of Tawi-Tawi, an island province, forming part of the country’s Muslim minority heartland in the Bangsamoro region. The city experienced its worst fire in years in early February, when flames swept through the coastal community, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless.
“We were swimming for our lives. We had to swim to escape from the fire ... We swam in darkness, and (even) the sea was already hot because of the fire,” Dabbang, a 27-year-old teacher, told Arab News.
“Everything we owned was gone in just a few hours — our home, our memories, the things we worked hard for, everything turned to ashes.”
Trying to save their 2-year-old daughter and themselves, she and her husband left everything behind — as did hundreds of other families that together with them have since taken shelter at the Mindanao State University gymnasium — one of the evacuation centers.
Unable to secure a tent, Dabbang’s family has been sleeping on the bleachers, sharing a single mat as their bed. When Ramadan arrived a few days after they moved to the makeshift shelter, they welcomed it in a different, more solemn way. There is no family privacy for suhoor, no room or means to welcome guests for iftar.
“Ramadan feels different now. It’s painful but at the same time more real. When we lost our home, we began to understand what sacrifice really means. When you sleep in an evacuation center, you understand hunger, discomfort in a deeper way,” Dabbang said.
“We don’t prepare special dishes. We prepare our hearts.”
While she and thousands of others have lost everything they have ever owned, she has not lost her faith.
“Our dreams may have turned to ashes, but our prayers are still alive,” she said.
“This Ramadan my prayers are more emotional than ever. I pray for strength, not just for myself, but for my family and for every neighbor who also lost their family home. I pray for healing from the trauma of fire. I pray that Allah will replace what we lost with something better. I pray for the chance to rebuild not just our house, but our sense of security.”
Juraij Dayan Hussin, a volunteer helping the Bongao fire victims, observed that many of them were traumatized and the need to cleanse the heart and mind during Ramadan was what kept many of them going, because they are “thankful that even though they lost their property, they are still alive.”
But the religious observance related to the fasting month is not easy in a cramped shelter.
“It’s hard for Muslims to perform their prayers when they do not have their proper attire because they usually have specific clothes for prayer,” he said. “Sanitation in the area is also an issue ... when you fast and when you pray, cleanliness is essential.”
For Abdulkail Jani, who is staying at a basketball court with his brother and more than 70 other families, this Ramadan will be spent apart from their parents, whom they managed to move to relatives.
“The month of Ramadan this year is a month of trial ... there will be a huge change from how we observed Ramadan in the past, but we will adjust to it and try to comfort ourselves and our family. The most important thing is that we can perform the fasting,” he told Arab News.
“Despite our situation now, despite everything, as long as we’re alive, we will observe Ramadan. We’ll try to observe it well, without missing anything.”
