Commuter Woes

I knew the "remembering all the important things" would not last long, even after an eventful morning. Turns out, the turn around time is one commute.  Stefan left "the phone" at school yesterday...  It was too good to last :)

I had arranged with the mom (on her suggestion - thank you, Andrea!) of the boys Stefan often rides in with to meet at the station and ride in together this morning.  We agreed to try and catch the 07:44 - they all like to arrive early!

We left the house at just past 07:22 - plenty of time to drop at the station.  Unless...

Do you notice the green lights in the picture?  And the cars stopped behind them?!?  What was going on?!?  It was gridlock all the way...

Turns out, a train derailed last night due to a mudslide.  My initial reaction was, "oh, GREAT!!!!"...  What great timing...  But, in the end, Stefan's commute was affected little.  For the rest of Yokosuka, however...

The landslide/derailment occurred at about midnight, just outside of Yokosuka: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/10-injured-after-mudslide-derails-train-at-yokosuka.  It started raining here at about 21:30 (9:30 pm)...  I read that we got about 111mm of rain last night. That is over 4 inches!!!  Our "Flooding" warning went off when it was still dry outside.  The "All Clear" happened just after 21:30 -  it had barely started raining here.  4 inches...  2.5 hours... That was a lot of rain!  We (me, really) woke up on and off to the claps of thunder for a couple of hours.  Thankfully, it was only me!

The train derailment shut down the Keikyu Line for the morning - and when it did re-open, there were no trains leaving the Yokosuka area to Yokohama/Tokyo...  So, being the main commuter train line, all (and I mean ALL) the commuters made it to the JR station where Stefan leaves from every morning.  I finally had him get out and run to the station.  He got to the station and on his train before I even made the roundabout...  By the time I got out of gridlock, he was at Zushi and getting on his bus.

10 (maybe 11) people were hurt out of 700 on the train that was derailed.  I am grateful that noone was badly injured and there were fairly few.  I will also be grateful for when the tracks are cleared and commuters can get back to their normal routines - and my typically 30 minute "there-and-back" does not take me 70...

I have to say, I was truly amazed at the impact - just in Yokosuka!!!  I must say that it is a reassurance that the Japanese know how to "do trains".  They manage to move a lot of people long distances without significant disruption to flow - unless, of course, there is a mudslide...