Divine boat’ saves stranded residents in Mabicho flood
Residents here recalled an act of “divine” intervention in the form of a drifting, dilapidated boat when flood waters were rising in western Japan.
... Around 5 a.m., the muddy water had reached the balcony on the second floor. Hisako then shouted, “A boat is coming this way.” Igawa, who acts as an agent for a cosmetics company, looked out from a bay window and saw what appeared to be a fishing boat drifting toward the house. The couple got into the empty boat and tried to reach higher ground by paddling with sticks found in the vessel.
They noticed neighbors in the settlement of about 60 households stranded on roofs or holding window frames while calling for help. The Igawas managed to maneuver the boat and brought about 10 people onboard...
They headed toward a small nearby hill, but the overloaded boat rolled over just before it could reach land, sending everyone into the water. However, other residents taking shelter on the hill pulled them out. And all of them survived.
A Shinto shrine that enshrines a guardian god of the settlement stands on the hill.... “It truly was a life boat that the gods sent to us,” Igawa said.
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an addition to an earlier story about small local groups doing rescue work in the Carolinas: GetReligion notes many of these groups are religious in origin
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