Wednesday, September 14, 2011

14/09 Typhoon No. 12 heavy rains damage World Heritage Site

The Yomiuri Shimbun

WAKAYAMA--The Cultural Affairs Agency has decided to conduct a full-scale investigation into the damage caused by Typhoon No. 12 to a UNESCO World Heritage Site that spreads across Wakayama, Nara and Mie prefectures.

Agency staff were to be sent on Wednesday to investigate the harm done to the heritage site known as "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range." Huge landslides occurred within the site on ancient roads known as Kumano Kodo, and there was also damage to the Kumano Sanzan shrines.

It may take several years to restore the areas to their original state.

According to the Wakayama Prefecture Board of Education, nearly 100 meters of the Kumano Kodo collapsed about one kilometer east of Mikoshi Pass in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture.

The heavy rain dumped by the typhoon earlier this month also washed away a section of the ancient roads about 30 meters long and about three meters wide along a river about three kilometers west of the pass.

(Sep. 14, 2011)

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