A Consideration for the better Preparedness against Mega- Disaster: Lessons from the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Jai-Ho Oh, PhD Professor Department of Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences Pukyong National University 1. Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami The 9.0-scale earthquake that hit Japan on March 11 at 2:45 PM (local time) was the biggest quake in Japan's history and the 5th biggest recorded across the globe. After quake unleashing massive tsunami waves had crashed into Japan s northeastern coast of Honshu, resulting in widespread damage and destruction. This earthquake and tsunami named to "the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake" make it the most powerful known earthquake to have hit Japan, and fourth most powerful earthquakes in the world overall since modern recordkeeping began in 1900. Aftershocks will always occur after a huge earthquake. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 37.9 m in height, the Tsunami wave height was at least 10 m at Miyagi and the tsunami inundated a total area of approximately 470 km² in Japan. There were reports of entire towns destroyed from tsunami-hit areas in Japan, including 9,500 missing and more than 1,000 bodies had been recovered in Minamisanriku by Mar. 14, 2011. The earthquake and tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage in Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse. The casualties and property damages are tremendous with 15,391 deaths, 5,364 injured, 8,171 people missing, and over 542,933 houses and buildings damaged or destroyed. Moreover, three nuclear reactors in Fukushima suffered explosions due to hydrogen gas that had built up within their outer containment buildings after cooling system failure. Hydrogen and vapor blasts that occurred until March 15 outside of the reactors led to the emission of radioactive materials into the air. The radiation levels inside the plant were up to 1,000 times normal levels, and that radiation levels outside the plant were up to 8 times normal levels. Later, a state of emergency was also declared at the Fukushima II nuclear power plant about 11 km south of Fukushima I. Through this sequence of mega disasters we may learn how prepare and handle this kind of multi-mega disasters. 2. Consideration for Preparedness against Future Mega-disaster 2.1. Operation of massive number of shelters Amazingly the victims are rather calm and resilient despite the critical condition. No riots, no major plundering nor chaos has been reported. The Japanese still live in covert, harmonious connection with one another. This is not restricted to immediate relationships as family or local community. Even as refugees feel some sense of connectedness with others, they value and keep order. The construction of temporary shelters is continuing in the affected prefectures. There are almost 2500 evacuation shelters for displaced persons. People in evacuation centers have
started to move to other parts of the country. However, people continue to face cold temperatures with insufficient heating and many elderly persons have lost their daily medications. There are approximately 5-6 nurses available at each evacuation center. The evacuee's population by age group is as follows: 13% are 0-14 years, 64% are 15-64 years and 23% are 65 years and older. A large proportion of the evacuees are old. Some prefectures have revised their plans upwards in order to respond to the needs. Iwate Prefecture announced that they are increasing the number of temporary shelters from 8,800 to 18,000, which will cover 40,000 to 50,000 people. Miyagi Prefecture keeps constructing more than 1200 shelters in 11 towns and cities. The challenge is to find suitable land to construct the houses, as the coastal area of Tohoku is mountainous and it is difficult to find flat land. The Japan government's plan is to have 30,000 temporary shelters built by mid-may, 2011. According to the National Policy Agency of Japan 70,409 families are living in evacuation centers. In order to allow evacuees to have better access to basic services while waiting for the temporary shelters, the Government is trying to find available public/government housing which can accommodate evacuee families. 42,145 public/government housings units across 47 prefectures are available for displaced families. In Tokyo prefecture, 600 families have been allocated vacant public housing units yesterday, free of charge, for a period of 6 months. In Korea we have not experience such massive victims after the Korean War for the period of Jun. 25, 1950 to Jul. 27, 1953. As shown in Photo 1, the Korea disaster relief had built dozens of shelters at Yeonpyeong Island for the victims from the North Korea's bombing on Nov. 23, 2010. At that time dozens of houses were destroyed in the artillery bombardment. However, the capacity to build temporary house is limited to less than several tens houses. After 2011 the great Japan earthquake and tsunami it is a right time to consider the capability to build a large number of temporary houses. It may not be an issue whether the central and/or local government or civilian relief agencies, such as the Korea disaster relief, Korea red cross, etc. is responsible to this task. Photo 1. The personnel of Korea disaster relief had built a dozens of temporary houses at the Yeonpyeong elementary school yard for the civilian victim from North Korea's bombing at Nov. 23, 2010. 2.2. Relief for massive victims The situation in Japan is still emerging, not only in those regions which were terribly hit by the earthquake and tsunami but throughout the country. There are estimated 173,000 evacuees by Mar. 30, 2011. A lack of clean water for victims personal hygiene is posing public health risks in some residential area and evacuation centers. The Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital reported that sanitation and hygiene environment is deteriorating in 30 per
cent of the 314 evacuation centers that they have assessed in Ishinomaki, Higashi- Matsushima and Onagawa in Migyai. Excreta disposal is a particular challenge. The local social welfare office is conducting training on drainage work and maintenance of toilets. Also, the Ministry of Defense has provided bathing services to 1.2 million people so far. For evacuees not being able to wash regularly or change their clothes is a particular hardship. Japan has requested an international assistance to deal with the priority needs including fuel, prefabricated housing, clothing and medicine for such a massive evacuees. Japan has so far received offers of assistance from 134 countries and 33 international organizations. It has accepted relief items from 24 countries to date of Mar. 30, 2011. Access to water has been restored to more than 1.9 million households over within three weeks after the earthquake and the priority is to regain access for the remaining 260,000 households. More than 400 water supply companies across the Japan have now established emergency water supply systems to provide water trucking service to the affected prefectures. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan has secured 520 vehicles in total and has maintained the deployment of about 320 vehicles. The science council of Japan has made a recommendation for the relief of victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the recovery of the disaster-stricken areas on Apr. 5, 2011 as follows (http://www.scj.go.jp/en/report/houkoku-110502-3.pdf ); Establish a comprehensive system for the relief of victims and recovery of disasterstricken areas Conduct full-scale and immediate relief activities for the victims Residents who evacuated to avoid the danger of being exposed to the radioactive substances are forced to live in shelters in other regions. The central and local governments should provide accurate and sufficient. The central government should clearly stipulate the employer s liability to be that of Tokyo Electric Power Company and immediately improve the situation. For information transmission that is scientifically reliable and also politically responsible. The central government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company should disclose information completely, seek appropriate support from the relevant overseas institutions and foreign researchers and transmit the information that is internationally reliable. The central government should establish a safe disposal system of massive radioactive. The recommendation of science council of Japan might be a good example of preparedness for the future disaster similar to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. 2.3. Management of dead bodies and prevention of epidemics after disasters Although the humanitarian community has been aware of these challenges for over several decades, it has been known there is a clear limitation in our current capacity to respond. Natural disasters, in particular, such as earthquake, tsunami, volcano, tropical cyclone, tornado, floods, etc., frequently overwhelm local disaster prevention and relief systems that care for the deceased. Consequently, the responsibility for the immediate response falls on local organizations and communities. The absence of specialist advice or mass fatality planning amplifies the problems, often resulting in the mismanagement of human remains. This is significant because the way victims are treated has a profound and long-lasting effect on the mental health of survivors and communities. In addition, correct identification of the dead has legal significance for inheritance and insurance that can impact
on families and relatives for many years after a disaster. Impact, the management of corpse is one of the most difficult aspects of disaster response, and natural disasters, in particular, can cause a large number of deaths (Morgan et al., 2006). Emergency response is often chaotic and uncoordinated immediately after a disaster. It is essential to have proper coordination among local, regional/provincial, and national. Although disaster preparedness plans may already have identified a coordination structure, early coordination is vital for manage information and coordinate assessment activities. Manage information and coordinate assessment activities to disseminate accurate information to families and communities about identification of the missing and management of dead bodies. Field manuals produced by the World Health Organization and other groups in recent years have strongly urged relief workers to avoid rapid disposal of bodies, which can create legal complications for families if they aren't able to identify the remains. However, the Japan's health ministry issued an emergency measure exempting families of tsunami and quake victims from having to obtain burial and cremation permits to speed processing of bodies after this month's disasters, on March 14. In Higashimatsushima it has started burying 80 of the bodies it is storing. The burials in the grave are expected to be temporary, with plans to cremate the dead within two years. 2.4. Management massive amounts of debris The devastation in Japan after the massive earthquake and tsunami on Mar. 11, 2011 appears to have no end. It has been known that the amount of debris is 24.9 million tones, which is about 1.7 times more than the case of "Hanshin great earthquake". It had taken almost 3 years to clean up the 14.5 million tons of debris occurred during "Hanshin great earthquake". In Miyagi prefecture alone the amount of debris is estimated as 15.5 ~ 18.2 million tones, which is comparable to the waste amount of wastes during 23 years in normal. The only option to deal with this massive amount of debris is just file up at the temporary disposal yards. Nor only the shortage of temporary debris storage yards but the shortage of facilities to handle sewage disposals. There are significant amount of contaminated water occurred by the storm water at the coastal area to be cleaned. It is not just limited to Japan to manage massive amounts of debris. In the ocean near Japan there is an astronomical amount of debris floating from more than 200,000 buildings which have washed into the ocean, along with thousands of people, cars, boats, and miscellany. Scientists are now predicting that it will take a year for the wreckage to end up in western coastal area in North America including Vancouver, Washington, Oregon and California. And it will circulate along the North Pacific Gyre. Within about a year, garbage will start hitting Hawaii s shores and the coast of California within three, before circulating back out again to Hawaii and adding to The North Pacific Garbage Patch where it will circulate in the gyre. 2.5. Crisis on communication Twitter and Facebook are instantly updated social media sites that provide real-time information networks that connect users to the latest information about what they find interesting. It can be access via the World Wide Web, the mobile phone text messaging system (SMS) or any of a number of third-party tools used with smart phones, tablet and desktop computers. Once a user posts a message, that message (update) becomes public and can be viewed by anyone. Acar and Muraki (2011) found that people in directly affected areas
tended to tweet about their unsafe and uncertain situation while people in remote areas posted messages to let their followers know that they are safe. However, the biggest problem was the reliability of twitter updates, particularly in calls for help, that were misplaced or lies. Worryingly, they also found numerous unreliable "retweets" (RTs), where users of the service repeated inaccurate information and that this was one of the biggest information-related problems facing those involved. However, Twitter communication could be improved if official hashtags were announced during disasters and the number of retweets for a given hashtag could be limited to avoid the wider spread of disinformation. According to Acar and Muraki (2011) there are three major conclusions. First, all users should have more responsibility for their tweets. Secondly, everyone should realize that Twitter is a public communication tool. Thirdly, information sources should be made clearer in updates. They add that appropriate use of hashtags and a method for regulating inappropriate or false retweets might be implemented. 3. Discussion and concluding remarks As recognized by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, the disaster situations are always complex and the management and coordination of response activities are rarely unproblematic. Accordingly crisis and emergency management, in particular, related to the natural disasters, has to be a multi-disciplinary and pro-active approach. Besides various measures for putting in place institutional and policy framework, disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness, the community, civil society organizations and media also have a key role to play in management of disaster. The lesson learned from the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake is any management activities should be set up on the basic rules in the crisis management, although it is not easy and simple to apply these rules for multi complex disasters, such as the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake on 2011. Unclear and delayed report on the situation on the Fukushima nuclear power plants may cause to worsen the radioactive emergency situation and to get assistance from foreign experts on the nuclear power plant accidents. The fundamental rules to manage any kind of crisis are as follows: First rule is swift response for the management of crisis. The propagation of crisis is comparable to the speed of light. That means proper decision making on time is essential to limit the impact of crisis. The cost will glow exponentially by delaying the decision. Second important rule might be consistency. Without consistency in the information on any crisis public will not trust the authority of crisis and emergency management, and it may not be possible to minimize the impacts of crisis without public collaboration. Openness is also import to achieve public trust to manage the crisis. The authority of crisis and emergency management informs the situation immediately and apologize to public if the crisis has occurred by operational mistake and/or improper governing system. It may avoid the further risk to maintain the crisis level without public resistance. Obviously trueness is important too. If there is any cheating or hiding on the fact to avoid to public blame, it may cause to loose public trust which is essential to managing crisis and emergency. The final rule might be common sense in the information on the crisis. No matter how good managing plan it is, it will not get public support and will be useless, if it is not based on the consideration of the public emotion or it is too ideal to be considered.
The crisis is occurred always beyond our preparations. Calamity is a result of the complexity of crisis and human complacency. Even all rules are considered it is also important to set up the control tower to lease the information to public and to conduct proper response on the crisis and emergency. Also, it is essential to document the progress of crisis development as well as effect of response step by step clearly. This documenting process will be a valuable work to prepare for the future similar crisis. References Acar, A. and Y. Muraki, 2011: Twitter for Crisis Communication: Lessons Learnt from Japan's Tsunami Disaster. International Journal of Web Based Communities, in press. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/ip-tan041511.php Morgan, O., T.-B. Morris, and D. Van Allen, 2006: Management of dead bodies after disasters: a field manual for first responders. Washington, D.C: PAHO, 54pp.