閉じる

Part 5: Pitfalls in Preparation (4-End) Experience and memory, evacuation action on decline

After the main shock, Kinoshita runs around the Kawahara neighborhood urging others to evacuate. Residents were reluctant to heed the warnings. (Illustration by Michino Kurishi)
Tsunami struck from both shores in Omotehama (left) and Kobuchihama (right). The white building on the bottom left is the Omotehama Branch of the Miyagi Prefecture Fisheries Cooperative = April 10, 2011, Kobuchihama, Ishinomaki City.

Heavy reliance on experiences and memories from past tsunamis doomed the lives of many during the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Masahiro Kinoshita (67), a welfare officer of Kawahara district, Ofunato City, thought back to how a disaster from 50 years ago impacted the city. “I’m sure even the elderly still remember the Chile Earthquake and Tsunami.”

On March 11, 2011, after the violent tremors ceased, Kinoshita bolted from his house in order to warn others to evacuate, and then noticed an idle gathering of residents looking out towards the bay and talking amongst themselves beside the tracks.

“A tsunami is coming, run away!” he firmly urged them. But the response he received was weak.

Next, he decided to take his car around the neighborhood. Honking his horn, he tried to coax others to evacuate. Since residents still remained in their homes, he left his car and went through every household.

In one home, an elderly woman who sat on living room gave him a dubious look. In another, an elderly couple dismissed him saying, “There’s no way it’ll reach here.” Even a man in his seventies took a swing at him to get him to leave.

Around 3:30 p.m., the tsunami surging up Suzaki River collided into a bridge and the torrent rose. “Run! Run!” Yelling as he went, he ran with all his might up a hill to higher ground and barely escaped the surge of murky water.

After the 1960 Chile earthquake and tsunami, the city of Ofunato was the largest disaster stricken area in the country. Within the city, there were fifty-three casualties and a total of 1104 homes were washed away or partially destroyed. Memorial plates which mark the flood height and reaching point of the tsunami, was established in the city. “Chile” became synonymous with tsunami blight amongst residents.

Four hundred meters away from the coast line, the tsunami spared the neighboring Kawahara district from property damage and casualties.

It was common to hear things like “a tsunami couldn’t cross the Ofunato Rail Line” or “if there was a tsunami, it would only inundation above floor level.” The residents of Kawahara took comfort in baseless “safety myths” because they experienced minimal damage in the past.

Despite Great Chile Earthquake of 2010, and foreshock two days before the 2011 disaster, there was no land damage. This continued to reinforce misconceptions of their security.

Following Chile earthquake and tsunami in 1960, the maintenance of the seawall and breakwaters further numbed their sense of danger. Out of the 320 residents living in Kawahara, less than 10 participated in the annual evacuation training.

Fisherman Chotaro Niinuma (85) lived by the JR tracks and for a long period did not participate in the training.

On the day of the Great East Japan Earthquake, his wife (81) convinced him to evacuate but at first he did not agree with her. “This area was fine during the Chile earthquake. Our house was elevated and the tracks laid on the higher ground. I thought we would be protected in any tsunami,” recalled Niinuma.

Frustrated, his wife left first, and soon afterwards Niinuma also evacuated with some reluctance. After 15 minutes, a 5-meter-plus tsunami engulfed the houses in the area.

This time the disaster obliterated 90 percent among 132 houses of Kawahara. Of the 27 casualties/missing persons, not only one victim was over 60 years old.

Suddenly, the people of Kawahara took on the mentality of most tsunami-prone regions. In other words, this encounter with a high-category tsunami passed on a deep fear of tsunami devastation; it instilled a strong image of natural disasters and amplified the fear of misjudgment.

◎Realizing change / A push for training reform

Brought about by past experiences, one misinterpretation of a tsunami warning is how the tide will withdraw before its arrival. Even during the Great East Japan Earthquake, many people went to the coast to look for this sign.

Omotehama branch of the Miyagi Prefecture Fisheries Cooperative is in Kobuchihama, Ishinomaki City. Operations Chairman of the branch, Senshi Kimura (61) was among those people. He lived 100 meters away from the branch office; after returning home, he heard the tsunami warning and went back to the wharf to check.

Kimura would have been convinced of the tsunami’s approach if he saw the tide receding.

However, the tide did not seem to change and Kimura thought, “It can’t be that bad.” He was reminded of the outcome from previous earthquakes and tsunamis. The Miyagi earthquake in 1978 did not cause a tsunami. During the Great Chile Earthquake of 2010, tsunami warning has been issued. But the tsunami was approximately 1 meter. His wariness towards tsunami disasters had completely slackened.

All of a sudden, people from up the hill started shouting. Acting on a sudden feeling of foreboding, together he and a mentally impaired man passing by took cover in the second floor of the Cooperation building. Soon after entering, the tsunami struck the building and flooded up to the second floor.

When the waves receded, Kimura tried to make for the hills nearby, but had been carried by the next waves. Clinging for his life on a refrigerator truck, he kept afloat in the waves.

Finally, he drifted near the mountains and was able to narrowly escape death. “It was a foolish move. The tides aren’t relevant at all ? you just have to get to higher ground during a tsunami,” he said.

In the case of the Great East Japan Earthquake, residents of Yagi district, Hirono Town, Iwate Prefecture, followed protocols to immediately evacuate after the earthquake stopped. As a result, the approximately 820 residents were all unharmed.

Hirono saw a death toll of 254 persons and 107 persons in the 1896 Meiji-Sanriku tsunami and the 1933 Showa-Sanriku tsunami respectively. Many of the lives lost were from the homes concentrated along the coastline in the Yagi district.

Recognition that "Run away at once" had penetrated the district residents. Through their painful experience with tsunamis, they embraced the knowledge to take swift action during a disaster.

Activities involving the improvement of evacuation awareness thrived. Every household participate in the voluntary disaster prevention organizations. The maintenance and cleaning of evacuations routes were approved for emergencies.

Every year since the 1933 Showa-Sanriku tsunami, Memorial service is held in front of the monument on around March 3rd. “With so many casualties in the past, clearly the region is still vulnerable to tsunamis,” says Yoshihiro Kura (70), organizer of the local disaster prevention group. “If there’s a tremor, everyone knows to start taking refuge on higher ground.”

Every tsunami outcome has differed from the last because of the bay’s shape and it’s location on the shifting ocean bed. Memories of floods zones and such from past tsunamis revealed only the surface of its potential.

“We shouldn’t be quick to declare the Tohoku disaster the worst of the them all,” indicated Professor Shun’ichi Koshimura (tsunami engineering) of the Tohoku International Research Institute of Disaster Science. An example he raised was the lesson of “Tsunami Tendenko”. It means everyone must evacuate immediately, without regard to others, when the tsunami comes. “It is not just about conveying experience, it is the necessity to continuously evolve these lessons that correspond with the right actions to survive,” he stressed. (“Preserve Lives and Communities” Investigation team)

Translated by Margaret Ngo
May 2, 2013 (Thurs.)

[Japanese] http://www.kahoku.co.jp/special/spe1114/20130502_01.html

関連タグ

最新写真特集

いのちと地域を守る
わがこと 防災・減災 Wagakoto disaster prevention and reduction

指さし会話シート
ダウンロード

 第97回むすび塾での聴覚障害者や支援者の意見を基にリニューアルしました。自由にダウンロードしてお使いください。

指さし会話シート
みやぎ防災・減災円卓会議