Can you take action to save your life when an unexpected catastrophe is imminent?
March 11, 2011.
A huge tsunami over 10 meters high killed more than 18,000 people.
In this interview, a woman who lost her parents and grandmother spoke strong regrets.
I was late to escape from the tsunami because I stayed with him at home.
"It was a life that I didn't sacrifice. I'm sorry I couldn't help you. I don't want anyone to have the same feeling."
That day, it took about 30 minutes to an hour from the occurrence of the earthquake to the arrival of the tsunami. had.
How can I evacuate?
What made the difference between life and death?
Now, tsunami evacuation experts are paying attention to the “evacuation cascade”.
(NHK Special "Tsunami Evacuation What Divided Life and Death" Interview Group)
"People who are not intended to escape from the tsunami" were able to evacuate
What did people think and how did they act before the arrival of the tsunami?
There are areas where organizations and research institutes reporting the earthquake have conducted detailed surveys of 1,200 people.
It is the Kadonowaki / Minamihama district in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture.
There is Mt. Hiyori at an altitude of 60 meters in the back of the residential area facing the sea, and many people were evacuated here that day.
Fumiyasu Makinoshima of Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., who analyzed this evacuation behavior survey, pays attention to the reason why people evacuated.
Nearly half of the people who arrived at Mt. Hiyori were evacuated by "people who were not intended to escape from the tsunami."
"Leading evacuation" is the key to evacuating
Why did these people reach Mt. Hiyori?
The key was Kadowaki Elementary School.
Immediately after the earthquake, the principal of the school, Yoko Suzuki, decided to evacuate 224 children to Mt. Hiyori.
At that time, Kadowaki Elementary School was a designated evacuation center for the tsunami, but with the idea that "disasters are not absolutely safe," he evacuated to Mt. Hiyori 15 minutes after the earthquake.
In fact, this action was the catalyst for saving many lives.
First is the guardian.
Even if I didn't have a clear intention to escape from the tsunami, I was saved by heading to Mt. Hiyori because I had to go to see my child and I wanted to confirm that my child was safe.
The footage shot at Mt. Hiyori at that time also shows that there are many parents beside the children.
The person who breaks through the situation of being unable to evacuate and begins to evacuate first is called the "leading evacuee".
Toshitaka Katada, an evacuation behavior expert and a specially appointed professor at the University of Tokyo's graduate school, said, "The leading evacuees act like evacuation momentums, changing the situation where they are wondering whether to evacuate or not, and evacuate the surroundings. It's an important role that can lead to an atmosphere of doing things. "
"Cascade of evacuation" where initiative evacuation spreads in a chain
In addition, this "leading evacuees" had the effect of pulling even residents in areas unrelated to the school to Mt. Hiyori.
One of them is Yoshie Ishikawa.
At that time, I was not aware of the tsunami and never thought about evacuating to Mt. Hiyori.
Mr. Ishikawa decided to go to Mt. Hiyori when an acquaintance woman in the schoolyard of the elementary school called out to "evacuate to a hill."
Mr. Ishikawa said, "Many people were confused in the schoolyard, but an acquaintance woman said,'Children have evacuated to Mt. Hiyori. Please go up to the mountain.' It is called "ta".
A woman I knew made such a voice because a teacher who stayed to deal with her parents told her to "escape to the mountains."
Evacuation from teachers to acquaintances and from acquaintances to Mr. Ishikawa was chained.
In this way, residents who said that it was not the purpose of escaping from the tsunami arrived at Mt. Hiyori.
Mr. Makinoshima, who conducted the analysis, compared the chain of evacuation not only to people close to him but also to people who are not related to him, and named it "evacuation cascade".
“It is suggested that my evacuation behavior affects people beyond my thoughts,” says Makinoshima.
We have summarized how the initiative evacuation that started with the principal and children affected.
From the initiative evacuation of the principal and children, the evacuation spread to parents first.
Some of the parents called out to the three residents and led them to Mt. Hiyori.
In addition, teachers who stayed in the schoolyard repeatedly evacuated not only their parents but also the residents.
From the survey, at least more than 300 people have reached Mt. Hiyori through the "evacuation cascade."
Kadowaki Elementary School, which was a designated evacuation center, was involved in the tsunami
After that, the unexpected tsunami reached Kadowaki Elementary School, which was supposed to be safe.
A fire also broke out and caused great damage.
545 people were killed in the Kadowaki / Minamihama area.
Mr. Ishikawa, who climbed up to Mt. Hiyori with a voice from an acquaintance, recalls, "Without that voice, I would probably have been dead."
The tendency of those who could not evacuate is also clear
While there was a life-saving "evacuation cascade," many were unable to evacuate.
Masato Kusashima, who lives in Ishinomaki City, is one of the people who escaped from the tsunami due to the delay in evacuation.
When the earthquake struck, I was driving around Ishinomaki city.
Mr. Kusashima is worried about the safety of his family and drives his car to his house near the sea.
The family is not at home and heads to the elementary school, which is an evacuation center, but thinks "I don't have any warm clothes" and heads home again.
By this time, nearly an hour had passed since the earthquake occurred, and the tsunami was approaching.
What caught the eye of Mr. Kusashima was the tsunami that exceeded the second floor of the building.
I ran the car at full speed and managed to escape.
"I thought my life would end with this. I made all my mistakes in my actions and judgments ..."
Risk of being late to escape "On the go" "Home and store"
A survey of evacuation behavior for 1,200 people has revealed a tendency for people at high risk of being delayed.
One of them is a person who was "on the go" like Mr. Kusashima.
Evacuation will be delayed by returning to your home or looking for a family because you are worried about the damage to your family and your home.
The survey revealed that 40% of the people on the go were in a dangerous situation, such as when they encountered a tsunami.
Another high-risk trend was for those who were in their "home and store" at the time of the earthquake.
Evacuation was delayed due to reasons such as "I hurried to clean up the store" and "I took measures such as checking the safety of customers".
Professor Toshitaka Katada points out that such behavior is likely to occur in many people in the event of a disaster.
"People can't escape even if they know they have to escape. People aren't actively making choices that don't escape, and they're still unable to make the final decision to escape. Evacuation is a difficult act to take action. "
Supporting "evacuation cascade" with new technology
The pattern of evacuation that one person's behavior affects the evacuation behavior of another person and spreads, as seen from the large-scale survey of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
How can we make use of disasters that may occur in the future?
This time, Mr. Makinoshima, who advocates the "evacuation cascade," is developing new technologies to efficiently create a cascade.
Makinoshima's team has developed an app to use when evacuating.
One of the functions is to display the number of people who have arrived at the evacuation center.
An AI camera that automatically recognizes people and grasps the number of people will be installed at the evacuation center to display the number of people evacuated in real time.
It is said that people who see the app will recognize that "everyone is evacuating" and will support evacuation.
I hope that evacuation will begin and the chain will spread throughout the town without having to look directly at the evacuees or be called out.
“There is no absolute safety in disasters” Evacuation drills with various options
In some areas, we continue training with an eye on various options based on the lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake.
It is Kuroshio Town in Kochi Prefecture.
This time, we interviewed the Irino area, which is expected to be flooded by 10 meters due to the tsunami (height 30 cm) 20 minutes after the earthquake.
Most of the children who use the children's center are continuing training to change evacuation sites.
On this day, the training was divided into evacuation destinations such as the nearby tsunami evacuation tower, the town hall on the hill, and the elementary school on the hill.
Find out how long it will take to evacuate and what the challenges of evacuation are.
The children who completed the training commented,
"The tsunami evacuation tower can be reached immediately, but you cannot evacuate at a higher height."
"In case there is a block wall in the middle of the road and you cannot pass through." You also have to know other routes
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Among them, I once taught the children that Naoki Kitayama, a staff member of the Children's Center, is important.
A team of children heading to an elementary school on a hill said, "If you are in an elementary school, you can go farther and higher."
In the Great East Japan Earthquake, a place that seemed to be safe was hit by the tsunami and was sacrificed.
Mr. Kitayama told the children, "I don't know what will happen in a disaster. I want you to know through training that there are many evacuation routes and evacuation destinations, not just one answer, and save your life." ..
My evacuation behavior is saving someone I don't know
Professor Katsuya Yamori of Kyoto University, who studies evacuation behavior, taught us what we can do in an emergency.
"Taking the action of evacuating yourself will save the lives of someone you don't know. On the contrary, know that staying affects others. Only for tsunamis. However, in the event of a disaster, whether or not you can move yourself is the key to protecting the lives of those around you. "