Evacuation Drills Paid Off in Tsunami-Hit Noto Area in Japan
Suzu, Ishikawa Pref., Jan. 16 (Jiji Press)--All residents in a district in the Noto Peninsula managed to evacuate safely from tsunami waves unleashed by the 7.6-magnitude earthquake Jan. 1, thanks to years of disaster evacuation drills.
"It wasn't a miracle. The drills paid off," said a resident of the Jikeshimode district of Misaki in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, at the tip of the central Japan peninsula.
The district has 90 residents, mostly aged people. Although many houses collapsed due to the quake, all residents managed to evacuate to a higher ground within five minutes.
Tsunami waves began to hit the district, home to Suzu Shrine, said to have been built some 2,000 years ago, shortly after the 7.6-magnitude temblor struck around 4:10 p.m. Jan. 1.
The disaster left furniture, tires and wooden debris of houses scattered all over the district, especially on seaside roads and the beach.
As soon as the temblor struck, residents prepared themselves for a tsunami wave. Their preparedness had been enhanced through evacuation drills, conducted once or twice a year after the March 2011 quake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan.
On Jan. 1, residents began evacuating quickly, going up slopes without carrying anything. They headed for an assembly hall on a hill.
Neighbors helped each other as they evacuated, carrying on their backs people who have difficulty walking. The first tsunami wave arrived just after all residents made it to the hall, about five minutes after the quake.
In each past drill, the time spent to evacuate was measured. Residents had picked multiple potential evacuation places including the shrine, but they decided on the hall to make things simple.
When the Jan. 1 quake struck, "I panicked and couldn't think calmly," said resident Toshitaka Okuhama, 68. But he said his legs naturally carried him to the hall.
"I thought it would be scarier to stay at home," Okuhama said, explaining that he thought that way thanks to the repeated disaster drills in the district.
A 53-year-old woman said tsunami waves came very quickly to the district.
"I'm horrified to think what would have happened if we hadn't run," she said. "Everyone could have died if no training had been conducted regularly. It wasn't a miracle. The drills paid off."
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