70,000 People Told to Evacuate as FRANCISCO Pounds Japan

All Izu Oshima island residents told to evacuate

Authorities in Japan have also instructed 19,000 households in seven prefectures to evacuate as Tropical Storm FRANCISCO continues to pound the Pacific coast of Japan.

Heavy rain and high winds brought by severe tropical storm FRANCISCO is expected to batter the island by early Saturday.

Typhoon WIPHA hit the volcanic island of Izu Oshima last week, dumping large amounts of rain, which triggered massive landslides, leaving 31 people dead and at least 13 others missing.

FRANCISCO was located near 29.9ºN, 134.9ºE, about 420 km south of Tanabe, Japan, heading northeast at a forward speed of about 33 km/hr, dumping heavy rains on western Japan.  Some areas have reported rainfalls in excess of 600mm, as of 14:00UTC on Friday, October 25.

Severe Tropical Storm FRANCISCO and Typhoon LEKIMA.  VISIBLE/INFRARED satellite image (FIRE-EARTH Enhancement) recorded at 13:30UTC on October 25, 2013. Original image sourced from: CIMSS/SSEC/WISC.

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Back to the Dark Empire Days

Japan’s desperate Prime Minister Abe’s government is reportedly planning a state secrets act meant to curtail public access to information on wide ranging issues including the Fukushima nuclear crisis and tensions with China, said a report.

Under the act whistleblowers could go to prison for up to 10 years. Journalist and other non-governmental persons would receive sentences of up to  five years for encouraging leaks.

“Japan’s harsh state secrecy regime before and during World War Two has long made such legislation taboo, but the new law looks certain to be enacted since Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party-led bloc has a comfortable majority in both houses of parliament and the opposition has been in disarray since he came to power last December.” The report said.

“There is a demand by the established political forces for greater control over the people,” said Lawrence Repeta, a law professor at Meiji University. “This fits with the notion that the state should have broad authority to act in secret.”

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is running out of options to store radioactive contaminated rainwater as a very wet FRANCISCO approaches.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has started  transferring contaminated rainwater into underground pools, originally deemed too leaky. The precipitation from recent typhoons and extreme rain events have been accumulating in barriers around radioactive waste water tanks, reported NHK.

TEPCO has been storing the most contaminated rainwater in tanks and in the basement of a turbine building. But the tanks are now full, the report said.

Related Links

• Coldest Place on or Near the Earth October 24, 2013
• FRANCISCO Drenches Okinawa, Moves Northeast October 24, 2013
• FRANCISCO to Bring More Rain to Sodden Coastal Japan October 23, 2013
• Crimes Against Nature: Water Overflows from 12 Fukushima Barriers October 21, 2013

• Typhoon FRANCISCO and TD 27 Headed for Tokyo October 20, 2013
• FRANCISCO Intensifying to “Extraterrestrial” Storm Force  October 19, 2013
• FRANCISCO Shifts Up Into Major Typhoon Gear October 18, 2013
• Typhoon FRANCISCO Inching Toward Japan October 17, 2013
• FEWW New Hurricane Scale
• Satellite Imagery

Links to Typhoon WIPHA

• Typhoon WIPHA Dumps 800mm of Rain Over Tokyo October 16, 2013
• Typhoon WIPHA Targets Tokyo October 15, 2013
• Typhoon NARI Chased by TS WIPHA October 12, 2013
• Vietnam Evacuates 250,000 ahead of NARI October 14, 2013