Number of searches for Typhoon No. 19 “Hazard Map”

Number of Typhoon No.19 Searches for “Hazard Maps” The most in the past 10 years December 12th 5:48

12 months from the heavy rain of Typhoon No.19, two months. Analysis of IT giant Yahoo that the number of searches on the Internet for the hazard map showing the area where the danger of disasters has increased is the largest in the past 10 years, and it seems that the situation was getting worse as the typhoon approached It became clear in. Some local governments have become unable to browse websites due to the concentration of access, and experts say, “Before checking disaster maps, local governments need to take all possible measures to ensure that disaster prevention information is communicated.” Pointed out.

When Yahoo analyzed the words that were searched on the Internet when Typhoon No.19 approached and landed, the number of searches per day as “hazard map” was the highest in the past 10 years, and it was about the time of West Japan heavy rain last year I found that it was 2.5 times higher.

According to it, it increased from the afternoon of October 11 when the Japan Meteorological Agency had a press conference the day before the typhoon landed, and the rain and wind increased, and from early morning to the night of the following 12 days when flooding and wind damage began to appear in various places It has increased intermittently.

Further analysis of the changes every 10 minutes shows that the most searched was the afternoon of 12th when special warnings of heavy rain were announced in 7 prefectures such as Tokyo and Shizuoka, and evacuation advisories for the local government and river flooding risk information were successively collected In 10 minutes from 4:10, there was an emergency release at a meeting of the Japan Meteorological Agency or dams in Kanagawa and Tochigi prefectures after 7:00 pm just after the typhoon landed in Shizuoka Prefecture, or when a special warning was announced. It increased rapidly at 9:30 pm just after it started.

In Typhoon No. 19, the Japan Meteorological Agency held an unusual press conference in advance to call for preparations for disasters and transportation was planned to be suspended, but many people were in danger of flooding the river due to increased wind and rain. The fact that they were trying to obtain information necessary for evacuation was revealed once again.

Expert “Slow confirmation at the time of disaster”

Professor Hiromura Kimura of Hyogo Prefectural University, who is familiar with disaster prevention information, said, “In a situation where a heavy rain special warning is announced, it is necessary to take action immediately to protect lives, and at that timing If you start to check the hazard map, you may be late to escape.In the event of a disaster, the situation changes from moment to moment, so you need to understand the dangerous places around your home based on the hazard map etc. , Local governments are required to strengthen their infrastructure so that information can be delivered even when access is concentrated, and in addition to posting hazard maps on the Internet, they usually use maps to open training with residents. It ’s important to be prepared. ”

Search word Changes according to the situation

In this survey, it became clear that the information people wanted to know changed as the typhoon approached.

We analyzed the words people searched on the Internet before and after the approach of the typhoon, and on October 10 two days before the typhoon landed, it was related to transportation such as “plan”, “cancellation”, “service” and “JR” Many words were seen.

In addition, there are many cases of investigating possible damages and impacts caused by typhoons, such as specific provisions for storms such as “window glass”, “curing tape”, and “countermeasures”, and “power outages” and “cassette stoves”.

While there were many preparations for the wind, the number of searches for rain and flooding was not so conspicuous, and in the background the typhoon No. 15 that had a series of power outages and damage to houses in Chiba Prefecture, Izu Islands etc. in the previous month It seems that there was.

However, on the 12th, when typhoons landed and special rain warnings were announced one after another, searches for river conditions such as “evacuation”, “river”, “water level”, “flooding”, and “live camera” increased rapidly.

At the same time, the number of “disasters”, “assumptions”, “maps”, and “floods” has increased, and it seems that rain and wind have finally strengthened, and the interest has shifted from preparing for disasters to how to understand and act on dangers.

Local government site 107 Difficult to view in city

In the heavy rain of Typhoon No.19, access to local government websites is concentrated, making it difficult to browse the site in 11 prefectures such as Tokyo, Saitama, and Nagano, and 107 municipalities in total. The NHK survey revealed that there was no state.

NHK conducted interviews with Kanno Konobu, Shizuoka, Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate local governments that were damaged by Typhoon No. 19 to see if there was any problem in browsing the website.

As a result, it was difficult to browse the website in 107 municipalities in 11 prefectures including Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Yamanashi, Gunma, Tochigi, Nagano, Fukushima, Miyagi and Shizuoka. .

Looking at each time zone, there were several local governments where websites were difficult to browse in Tokyo and Chiba from around 8am on October 11, the day before the typhoon landed in Shizuoka Prefecture. it was done.

However, it increased again from around 8:00 am on the following 12th when landslide warning information and evacuation advisories began to be announced in various parts of the Kanto region, and continued from noon to the peak of the evening until the dawn of the next day (13th).

Of these, in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, it became difficult to browse the website from around 8:00 am on October 12.

Residents received multiple inquiries, such as “Cannot see homepage”, and the staff manually switched to a simple website with a small amount of data, but the congestion did not change much and it was difficult to browse It was only around 10pm, more than half a day.

Later, the person in charge confirmed that it was found that the number of accesses to the page containing the hazard map reached approximately 44,000 on that day alone, which was nearly 90 times higher than usual. .

In April, the ward had been distributed to all households since April, but the Meguro River flowing through the ward exceeded the danger level of flooding, so it seems that access has increased to check the hazard map. It is.

In Meguro-ku, we are considering to communicate disaster prevention information not only on the website but also on the SNS. Atsuko Sakai said, “It was based on information transmission on the website, but it was not prepared. I would like to consider measures to ensure that the residents can get the information they need. ”