1. Is it all water?
Yokkaichi's flood hazard map is shaded so heavily in the city center that it looks like "everything is underwater." But that doesn't mean the whole district sinks to the same depth, so you need to check the exact spot you care about.
2. What actually happened in September 2025
On the night of September 12 (9/12), Yokkaichi recorded 123.5 mm of rain in one hour, the heaviest ever observed there at the time. Basement levels 1 and 2 of the Kusunoki Parking garage flooded, and 274 cars were damaged. No injuries were confirmed. Water poured in through 15 entrances and other openings in total. The same downpour also flooded several other districts, public facilities and the central downtown area. Upper floors: "Bring it on." 1st floor: "Wait, wait…" Basement: "Game over."
3. River floods and city drainage floods are different things
A river flood (the kind the hazard map shows) mostly comes from rivers overflowing. An "inner-water" flood, or urban flooding, happens when so much rain falls that the drains can't cope and water pools in the streets. So don't stop at "The flood map shows no color, I'm safe!" Check the drainage flooding risk too. And a predicted flood depth of around 2 m can seriously affect an ordinary ground floor.
4. From "underground, underground!" to "above ground, above ground!"
On normal days, using an underground car park is fine. On days when record-breaking rain is expected, choose a suitable above-ground spot first. And once a car park has flooded, don't go back down to save your car. Nagoya is the same: how urban a place feels has nothing to do with its elevation, its rivers or how well it drains. Read the map by location × type of disaster.
