TOKYO -- The deadly flooding in western Japan has exposed deep problems with the nation's warnings-based disaster prevention system, exposing it as a poor substitute for physical flood control measures.
Three days of intense rain that began July 6 put to the test recent efforts to make timely disaster and evacuation alerts a core part of disaster preparedness. Now, with the death toll topping 200 as of Friday, this so-called soft disaster prevention policy appears to have fallen far short.
