TWO friends from Brecon helped to fight the recent flooding disaster in Japan while they were on holiday two weeks ago.
Meredith Jones and Gavin Watkins, who had travelled to Japan to jointly celebrate their 40th birthdays, were in Kyoto when the giant downpour started.
The pair, who arrived in Japan on Friday, June 29, had spent three days in Tokyo before going to Kyoto.
They had planned to move onto Hiroshima, one of the worst hit areas for flash flooding and landslides, and Osaka but they were stranded in Kyoto by the weather.
At least 179 people have died and there are still around 70 people missing since Japan was hit by one of its worst flooding disasters in decades.
The country experienced landslides and floods in western and central areas as a result of torrential rains.
More than eight million people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, around 270,000 households across the county have had their water supplies cut and thousands of homes remain without electricity.
The recent disaster has caused the highest death toll as a result of rainfall in Japan since 1982.
While the rain has currently stopped, the country is struggling to handle the damage which has been left behind.
Meredith, who now lives in Scotland with his wife and two children, and Gavin, who now works in China, are originally from Brecon – they both attended Mount Street School and Christ College before moving away.
Chiropractor Meredith, who is based in Kirkcaldy, said: “We spent a week in Kyoto as we were unable to travel down to Hiroshima because of the weather.
“When we arrived on the first day, we went for a walk up the side of the Kamo river.
“We went for a walk again on day three and we could see that the water had risen quite a lot, and was really high compared to the first day.”
The two men, who were staying in the Gion District, helped locals and the Japanese military unload an entire truckload of sandbags in an attempt to stop the rapidly rising water levels.
Meredith said that the Kamo river had burst its banks and consumed the footpaths on either side by their fourth day in Kyoto.
“The next day which was the Friday (July 6) we were having dinner and we decided to go out after and we saw the military vehicles with about 1,000 sandbags.
“We knew that we would either have to go back to the hotel which would mean sitting around waiting or we would help.
“It honestly wasn’t a big deal, we just did what anybody else would have done if they were there and we were just throwing sandbags around.”
Meredith said that the locals were concerned for their homes and also because the area was supposed to host the Gion Festival the following week with handmade floats – some of which had taken a year to build.
He said: “We saw the water getting up really high, we weren’t even in the worst-hit areas like Hiroshima.
“It was all over the news over there every day and the locals were really starting to get very worried. It was quite surprising when we got back how little coverage it had over here in comparison really.”
The river had also burst its banks in Arashiyama following the large amount of rain – it is estimated that two months of rain fell in two days.
One of the main causes of death across Japan, during what Meredith described as a ‘terrible disaster’, was the landslides caused by the excess water.
Meredith said: “We could see where trees and parts of buildings had been washed up, all the greenery had washed away.
“We saw the water at its highest, and then after three days when the rivers had gone back to normal the military were still there.”
The pair had tried not to mention the ordeal to their families too much while they were still in Kyoto.
Meredith’s dad, Anthony Jones, had apparently remained in contact via text although it was difficult with the limited signal caused by the weather. He said: “My dad was worried, he was texting me to make sure I was okay and telling us to try to get back to Tokyo.”
Meredith said that while he was relieved to be back in the UK, both him and Gavin had wished they could have done more to help.