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The Yomiuri Shimbun Residents evacuated to the town hall of Kadogawa, Miyazaki Prefecture, on Thursday.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
15:38 JST, August 12, 2024
A total of 139 evacuation centers have opened across 24 municipalities in four prefectures — Aichi, Wakayama, Kochi and Kagoshima — in response to the Megathrust Earthquake Attention advisory issued over a possible Nankai Trough earthquake, a survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun has revealed.
Although the advisory does not call for preemptive evacuation, some municipalities opened shelters in response to residents’ requests, while others opened them in accordance with guidelines that stipulate they must be opened when emergency advisories are issued.
The survey inquired about the status of evacuation shelters in 29 prefectures covered by the advisory, which include 707 municipalities, and 27 prefectures responded.
Among the four prefectures, Kochi had the highest number of shelters, with 113 in 20 municipalities. Aichi was next with 20 shelters in one city, followed by Kagoshima with four shelters in two towns and Wakayama with two shelters in one city.
In total, 68 people have evacuated across the four prefectures.
Approximately half of the shelters had already closed as of Sunday, leaving 65 shelters housing 22 evacuees still open.
One shelter opened on Friday in Tosashimizu, Kochi Prefecture, where tsunami up to 34 meters are expected in the event of a Nankai Trough earthquake, and about 15 elderly residents living alone had evacuated there for the night as of Sunday.
A city official said, “There are many people saying they feel uneasy being alone at night.”
In Tosa, also in Kochi Prefecture, a welfare shelter was opened in a senior care facility on Friday in response to requests from residents requiring assistance during an evacuation. Bedridden elderly men were sheltering there as of Sunday, with public health nurses and care managers on hand to provide support.
In Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, where a maximum intensity of 7 on the Japanese seismic scale is expected, the disaster response guidelines stipulate that shelters should be opened when an advisory is issued. Consequently, 20 shelters were opened on Thursday night. A lack of air conditioning at 18 elementary and junior high schools doubling as shelters stoked concerns of heatstroke, resulting in the number of available shelters being reduced to two.
Only one person evacuated between Thursday and Friday, but the city plans to keep the shelters open for about a week, as the government continues to call for disaster preparedness.
For a Megathrust Earthquake Alert, which is a higher level than the current advisory, preemptive evacuation will be required for residents in areas where tsunami evacuation cannot be completed in time. An official in a prefecture where shelters had not yet opened said, “Although the decision to set up shelters is up to the municipalities, if the alert is issued, shelters will need to be set up, and the prefecture will be ready to support them.”
