Between approximately 4:40 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. on June 26, 2026, the Kyoto City Fire Department received a series of five emergency calls reporting flooding at private homes and other buildings near the Iwakura River in the Iwakura area of Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City. At one of these locations—Kitayama Hospital—firefighters confirmed flooding beneath the floorboards in three areas and used sandbags to address the situation.
According to the Kyoto City Civil Engineering Management Division, rising water levels in the Iwakura River caused damage to a section of the riverbank and the guardrail along a city road. A stretch of the road spanning approximately 100 meters was closed to traffic starting around 7:00 a.m.
Local residents reported that a privately installed bridge had been swept away by the muddy torrent. A woman in her 60s living nearby, whose home suffered under-floor flooding, sighed and said, "I was shocked to wake up and find the bridge—which had been there for about 50 years—gone. My property is a mess of muddy water. My car got submerged, too; I just hope it isn't broken."
A man in his 60s from the neighborhood, whose home experienced flooding reaching about 50 centimeters beneath the floorboards, had been shoveling away the muddy water since morning. "I didn't expect the rain to get this heavy," he said. "No disaster alerts went off, so I was surprised to wake up and find the place flooded. The power hasn't come back on yet, so I'm going to take the food from my refrigerator to a nearby place for safekeeping."
