Preparations

Have you made any preparations for earthquakes since the disaster?

I have an emergency backpack. It has things like water, instant rice, thermal sheets, and a poncho. There’s a manual radio and a lantern, too. Then a whistle and gloves. The whole works.

As someone with a disability, do you have any advice for abled people on emergency preparations?

Rather than collecting things, it’s more important to get connected with different places before a disaster happens. Then you’ll have a broader perspective. I think sharing information is important.

So it’s important to put out your own feelers and do whatever you can to collect information.

Yes, I think so. I think that’s where you have to start to get supplies and such.

When the disaster happened, did you get your information from the radio?

Yes. It’s easier to understand than TV. The problem with TV is that the onscreen text is useless to me. It’s helpful when they say every little thing out loud. In the Ishinomaki area, a cell phone is also convenient. If you register, you can get your cell phone to play announcements for drills, tell you what areas are being evacuated in a flood, and so on. You just register with the city.

And it plays audio?

Yes.

Was that feature added after the disaster?

No, it was available before. How many years ago? It was quite a while ago. You just send a blank email from your cell phone to register. I received so many emails from the city, such as about disaster victim registration.

So if you register for services like that and stay connected with the people around you on a daily basis, you won’t have a problem when something happens.

That’s right. If you do that, you get information quickly. And that’s not only limited to disasters.