Typhoon

Here are some not-so-great pics because all I had was my cell phone, but this is the Tama River near where we live. It's swollen to probably about three times its normal size from the typhoon that whipped through here yesterday directly from the Pacific Ocean. Usually, these storms come up from the south and hit many islands before getting to the mainland of Japan itself. That's what people tell me, anyway.

This river has very large overflow areas (not sure what they are called) on both sides that are used for playing fields and parks before you get to millions of people in housing and industrial areas on both sides. You can see part of that area in that top pic on the left ... the half flooded green area is what I'm talking about. Most of that area in the other three images is totally under fast moving water. It's a good idea to have these areas if you have typhoons around, I guess, eh? The population density here is truly unbelievable, so I can't imagine this amount of water flowing through the streets -- which are just a few feet away in some areas. Had this typhoon been stronger, it could have been quit horrible around here. It was already pretty bad for some people on this river -- Two dead as typhoon crashes into Japan.