Record snowfall hits western Japan, causing delays.
Heavy snow pummeled the Sea of Japan coastline and areas in the country’s north and west on Monday, stranding many vehicles and dumping record snowfall in some western Japanese cities due to a strong winter pressure pattern.
Hikone city in Shiga Prefecture saw 68 centimeters (26.7 inches) of snow, while in Hyogo Prefecture’s Asago city, 71 cm fell within 24 hours through early Monday — both the most ever recorded, according to the Meteorological Agency.
In the same period, Minakami in Gunma Prefecture had 70 cm, Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture had 55 cm, and the city of Aomori had 190 cm of snow. Cities like Nagoya, Kyoto and Hiroshima also observed snowfall.
One vehicle struck another from behind at around 6:30 a.m. on the Maizuru-Wakasa Expressway in Kyoto Prefecture, while a truck waiting for the accident to be cleared became stuck in snow, causing a traffic jam of around 20 vehicles.
The road operator, West Nippon Expressway Co., closed both inbound and outbound lanes of the expressway until snow was removed. The expressway didn’t fully reopen until past noon.
In Hikone, a large truck was immobilized just before dawn on a section of the National Route 8. The incident at one point caused a backup of traffic stretching for nearly 2 kilometers.
A 44-year-old man was stranded on his way to Hikone for work after encountering other stranded vehicles. “I have not moved for four hours.”
Local residents were seen in the morning clearing snow from the road on the Toyosato section of the highway.
One of them, a 47-year old man, said that around 60 cm had accumulated by morning. “It has been a while since I’ve seen this much snow,” he remarked.
A woman in her 50s who lives in Hikone said she could not move her car out of her garage because of snow piled up outside. “I removed the snow yesterday, but I gave up today. There’s just too much and I don’t feel like going out in my car,” she said.
Railway train services were also disrupted.
The heavy snow caused the Tokaido Shinkansen Line that runs between Tokyo and Osaka to operate at slower speeds. On the JR Tokaido Line, express trains were delayed for up to four hours on Monday morning.
West Japan Railway Co. also stopped operating some trains.
A number of flights to and from cities on the Sea of Japan coast and Hokkaido were canceled.
The weather agency warned that heavy snowfall as well as icy roads and high waves could continue through Tuesday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno urged residents in the affected areas not to go out as much as possible, saying further traffic disruptions may occur.
More than 1,000 people in Japan spent Thursday night stuck on a highway in their cars, waiting out a traffic jam with little food or water during a heavy snowstorm.
Reports of the traffic jam, on the Kanetsu Expressway connecting Tokyo and Niigata prefectures, began emerging on Wednesday. By the early hours of Thursday morning, authorities had closed the highway entrance to alleviate clogging.
The jam began after a car got stuck in deep snow in the middle of the highway, grinding traffic to a halt, according to the Nippon Expressway Company , the country’s highway operator.
The country’s central and northern regions had been hit with heavy snowfall that morning, disrupting transit and causing some communities to lose power.
Traffic built up on the stalled highway; at its peak on Thursday night, the jam stretched to 15 kilometers (about 9.3 miles). Some segments of the long traffic line were able to move slowly with starts and stops, but some motorists remained stuck in place for more than 40 hours.
The jam continued through Friday; the lanes coming from Tokyo eventually cleared, but the lanes heading into the capital were still halted. As of noon on Friday, there were still 1,000 cars stuck.
Photos of the highway show the long lines of unmoving cars, many with piles of snow on top of and around their vehicles, stranded amid snow-covered fields.
Some limited relief came on Thursday when emergency responders passed out rice balls, bread, crackers, sweet snacks, and 600 bottles of water, as well as thousands of liters of gasoline and diesel oil.
But it wasn’t enough, with drivers stuck for many more hours in the cold.
“The snow was extremely heavy. As time went by, the cars got buried. I was really scared,” one unnamed driver told Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel prepare food and water for people stuck on Kanetsu expressway .
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