Recent heavy snowfalls from the Kanto-Koshin region to Hokkaido revealed the vulnerability of areas that up to now have not experienced such heavy snowstorms. Overall snowfall across the nation has been on the decline, but severe snowstorms are occasionally striking areas that normally do not get much snow. Both the public and private sectors, even in relatively warm areas, need to take precautions against heavy snow.
There were record snowfalls in many places this month. The city of Kofu reported 114 cm of snow, more than twice the previous heaviest fall since records began being kept in 1896. As of Feb. 19, at least 22 deaths had been attributed to heavy snow in the Kanto-Koshin and Tohoku regions. Expressways were closed with trapped vehicles still on them, mountain communities were cut off, train services were stopped, power outages occured and schools were closed. As of the night of Feb. 18, more than 6,000 people were isolated in seven prefectures, including some 2,400 residents in the town of Marumori in Miyagi Prefecture.
Expressway closures greatly affected the delivery of food and other goods, leading to empty shelves in supermarkets and convenience stores. Some factories were forced to halt operations. The government and expressway operators must examine whether they acted quickly enough to close them before vehicles could become stranded, and how they can improve their efforts to clear expressways of snow so safe travel can quickly resume. As it would be very costly for local governments to buy snowplow trucks, it may be more feasible for them to provide construction firms with snow plows that could be attached to their dump trucks when needed.