As we reported in News047, the monster typhoon No.18 or Songda, which severely hit Japan in September 2004 reminded us of the saying "providing is preventing".

In fact, high waves generated by Songda's exceptional wind power flooded our premises together with the adjoining road although the sea was not at high tide then, and our dock was overflowed, with water discharging pumps being out of order due to widespread power failure.

In this issue, we are introducing our own flood prevention works that we have just carried out in order not to repeat it.

First, we built steel walls of 70cm height surrounding our dock (see photo, left). These walls protect the vessel under construction by stemming sea water, even in case of flood, while water already in the dock will be sucked up by pumps powered by our own brand-new power plant.

Next, we have raised the height of walls facing the road, again by 70cm (see photo, top), and installed a water-tight steel gate at each entrance point (see photo, left). From our experiences, we know that the road may function as channel via which a great amount of water comes up when an exceptional tidal attack occurs. The modified walls and new gates are aimed at choking off the potential water flow heading to our premises.

We are confident that this package of countermeasures will effectively protect vessels and our factories against any storm surge.

[2005/09/18]