It is starting to feel like the rainy season. The Palaceside Building holds a flood-prevention drill every year before the rains begin. This year it was in late May. About 40 people took part in earnest, including Mainichi Building Co. staff and personnel from Aing (security), Globeship (facilities) and Seibi (cleaning).
The drill was on a Sunday when the building was closed. In the morning they practiced sealing two building entrances that lead to the Takebashi Station ticket gates on the second basement with flood doors. The main entrance up the escalator to the first basement is closed with a two-leaf flood door. Twenty centimeters thick, steel up to the ceiling, it is stored behind the kiosk — like a storm shutter. Several people haul it out with ropes (four photos below).
That alone is not enough. In diving one says “one atmosphere at 10 meters,” and if the second basement floods the pressure is considerable. Thick as they are, the panels need props from behind, as in the topmost photo.
This sequence of work
was carried out quietly by the book. Any broken parts would be repaired. The drill is also an inspection; no major problems were found.
The west ele
vator-hall entrance is sealed the same way. Here a steel door is closed (photo at right). Props from behind are fitted in the same manner.
Next they practiced setting waterproof boards at the top of the parking-garage ramp. Two boards sit midway down the ramp; a post is set between them and the boards stand on either side (three photos at left) looking from the garage toward the entrance. From the entrance (Hakusan-dori) it looks like the photo at right.
In the afternoon, in a cor
ner of the garage, they practiced making sandbags. At a sand store under the second-basement ramp they actually scooped several spadefuls into bags (photo below).
They also walked around the Palaceside Building and checked flood-risk spots — door gaps, breaks in the surrounding brick — places where sandbags must stop water.
Aiming for a safe, secure building, the Palaceside Building will keep holding regular drills of many kinds, ready for when they are needed.
