Preparation

Disaster prevention awareness

I took a disaster volunteer coordinator course as part of my studies. A volunteer coordinator is a person who takes a leadership position to manage people who come to volunteer at an evacuation center in the event of a disaster. The coordinator needs to have knowledge of disasters, the types of needs that can arise, and how to manage an evacuation center. I learned how to run a reception desk and manage a shelter through role playing.

For example, in this course you learn how to use damaged homes and whatever you have to rescue people and keep activities going when you have no proper equipment, how to get past this kind of situation, how to manage a shelter, and so on. I had been interested in disaster prevention for a long time, and had been learning about it for a few years.

Long before the disaster happened, I often told our trainees about what I’d learned. I think this accumulated so the trainees themselves felt like they would be fine because I had studied these things.

So at that time they often asked me what they should do next.

I really feel glad I studied all this. I had thoroughly prepared disaster prevention equipment and secured all the furniture because of what I’d learned, so not a single thing fell over and no one was injured.

If even one person had been injured then, we would have been late evacuating because we would have had to tend to that person, and I think the tsunami would have gotten us. And if you let the people who are okay evacuate first, you end up splitting into a few groups. I think our initial response was good because we were able to evacuate without a single injured person. In some ways my preparations and learning paid off.

 

What inspired you to start your studies?

It had been common knowledge for many years that an earthquake would happen in Miyagi Prefecture, so I had a personal interest in disaster prevention studies. We have to protect our trainees, so it was natural that I was making all these preparations for disaster prevention.

Sharing experiences

Do you have any thoughts or things you want to share now?

Since that disaster, we’ve had opportunities to talk about our experience and how we prepared ourselves.

Of course, other welfare organizations located near the coast around Japan are worried that the same sort of disaster or tsunami might happen to them.

I have been invited to speak around the country for a few years now, but I sometimes wonder if my speeches are actually raising people’s disaster prevention awareness, and if people are actually putting what I say to use.

The Kumamoto earthquake was a big shock to me when it happened. I have passed on our earthquake experience and the things we did to prepare in the hope people might put it to use. However, I’ve seen how people have had the same experience in Kumamoto and various other places, so I feel like my efforts haven’t been useful.

Whenever I hear about a natural disaster, I feel really frustrated. I know this isn’t a small problem that can be solved by someone like me telling people about it, but that doesn’t change how I feel.

People’s memories fade too, and every day I think about how best to appeal to people around Japan to overcome the awareness problem, how to protect their lives in the event of a future disaster, and how to help them better understand the challenges social workers face in a disaster.

Ultimately, the only thing I can do is talk about it like this.

First, I hope that learning about our disaster experiences will be the first step for people to change their way of thinking and come to new realizations.

Social workers do face different challenges in a disaster than lay people do, so I want people in the social work field especially to understand this. Because both our trainees and our staff went through a really hard time in the disaster, and I don’t want our peers around the country to go through the same thing if a disaster happens to them.

After the disaster, a welfare organization located near the ocean in another prefecture once came to us saying they’d like all their employees to hear our workshop’s story. Later I heard that they started taking disaster prevention measures based on our experience.

I feel somehow relieved when I hear that a social welfare organization is now putting the things we told them to use to make preparations. It’s also really great when the organization doesn’t just copy the preparations and responses we adopted to protect our trainees, but discusses things amongst themselves to arrange their own strategy. It’s scary not knowing what might happen.

Preparations for future

It is said that that earthquake was one which would happen in a thousand years. However, no one should say for sure that we won’t experience it again. As the ones who actually experienced it, we have an obligation to prepare ourselves better for such disasters and we need to build a system to better protect our trainees. Frankly to say, we are not yet totally prepared. It was rather a hard experience, and we need to learn lessons from it I think.

On the other hand, I wonder what it entails to be totally prepared.

At Sakura Gakuen, as it is located very close to the coast, we can’t do anything against the water once things like that disaster happen. Only option will be to escape. In one of our evacuation drills, once a year, we all walk to the elementary school supposing that the situation doesn’t allow us to use our cars. We need to know how far each of the trainees can walk including the ones who are not good walkers.

One of our trainees barely reached the entrance of the supermarket and felt exhausted at the evacuation drill in the first year. The same person could get to the crossing behind the supermarket in the next year, then to the top of a small hill a little further away the following year. And in the fourth year, the person finally walked all the way to the elementary school. We need to know how far each trainee can walk so that we can avoid any accidents by forcing people beyond what they can do.

We won’t be able to know exactly how much preparation is enough but we know the bottom line for survival. We have prepared ourselves for this level in our drills.

I didn’t want to leave everyone.

Shoko’s friends at Orion were invaluable to her.

 

Ms. Kumai: When I said I wanted her to go to the hospital, Shoko didn’t want to go.

Shoko: Hehehe

Kumai: When Shoko said she didn’t want to go, I said no, you have to go.

Shoko: Hehehe

 

She doesn’t like the hospital?

Kumai: No, I don’t mean she doesn’t like it. She knew she would be separated from her other Orion friends if she went to the hospital, so she said, “I want to stay here with everyone.”

I think it’s the same now. If something like this happens again, I want to try to make sure we can all stay together. Because I was the one who told Shoko to go at that time, and I wished I didn’t have to do that. If something happens, everyone will feel safest if they can stay together. (Orion now has an in-house power generator in case of another disaster.)

Ms. Yanagibashi’s thoughts

What are your thoughts for now and the future after your experience with the disaster?

Yanagibashi: Experiencing the disaster made me realize we can’t be off guard even though we live inland. I want to make sure we can respond, whether we’re shuttling our trainees or busy with other activities, based on where to flee to if such and such happens. We are actually working on evacuation maps and disaster response manuals. We’re focusing our efforts on those sorts of things while thinking about how we can protect our trainees.

We’ve been told that even if the canal overflows (due to a tsunami), the water probably won’t even reach one meter. But I can’t really say it’s okay for our trainees to be left standing even in less than one meter of water. I want to focus on evacuation training including our employees so we can figure out how to protect our trainees in that kind of situation.

Some of our trainees still get nauseous or panic during evacuation drills. Even though they’re alive and nothing has happened to their families, just hearing “It’s an earthquake” or “It’s a fire” startles them and makes them go stiff because they see a disaster situation. They remember 3/11. I think what they’re remembering is the time they were separated from their parents and spent a few days feeling terrible. I hope they can overcome those things a little at a time, and that we can stay by their sides and get stronger along with them.

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.

Living in temporary housing

Did you have any problems when you moved into temporary housing in May? Or were there any good things about moving?

At first I thought it was good that we had temporary housing, but the walls and rooms weren’t insulated, so it was hot in summer and cold in winter. That was the hardest thing. We also had trouble because we couldn’t communicate with our neighbors. When we lived in Yuriage, the hearing people around us had learned how to communicate with us, so we were able to communicate through writing and simple gestures, but this didn’t go very well in the temporary housing.

There were also no sign language interpreters available for the procedures we had to go through in various government offices, so it was really hard because we couldn’t understand how to fill out these detailed documents. But after around three months, volunteer interpreters from around the country came to the temporary housing complex, so we were really grateful for that.

 

What are you doing to prepare for disasters now that you’ve had this disaster experience?

If we had experienced tsunamis before in the past, I imagine we would have made some preparations. Now we feel safe because we live far from the ocean, but we have made emergency preparations anyway.

Changes in perceptions

Did you have measures set for earthquakes before the disaster?

We didn’t prepared anything special. Only materials we prepared for disasters were candles and flash lights. We added radio after the disaster. We can’t take out car radios, so we now have portable radios and batteries. We keep lists of contacts such as telephone numbers of our trainees in our service cars now. We also added chargers for mobile phone.

 

Did people experience changes in how they see things before and after the disaster?

I suppose family members of the trainees experienced changes. People witnessed incidents that took life so quickly. Parents seemed to have started thinking in detail what would happen to their children with disabilities if those kids lost their support. If the children have siblings, these can help them, but not all have siblings. Who will take care of the children then? That’s what parents started wondering. Some opened bank account with their children’s names. Some are trying to obtain special category status for their kids so that they can receive residential care services. Some of these parents send their kids for short stay programs to prepare them for residential care. People started thinking about practical matters on what they can do for the time they leave the children.

 

Final question. Is there anything you want persons without disabilities to know or things you want to tell them?

We produce bread and cookies at Himawari. These products are tools to facilitate people’s contacts, I believe. The trainees talk to people when they sell our products. With smiles on their faces, they take these products to clients’ residences or offices. People will see that persons with disabilities can also be so cheerful with smiles. I believe that it will be much easier for the trainees to ask for help to someone they have met before when they lost any other support like their family or workshop staff. We are trying to increase the contacts they have with local people. I’d really like to build a base for the trainees with disabilities to be able to keep living here in Kesennuma. Our tools to make this base are these sweet flavored cookies and bread with fresh aroma. These tasty food items help people to get to know each other. I am hoping that the trainees, not only make monetary reward by selling these, but also build their connections to local people for their future. We are now visiting with our products 17 offices such as local companies and local governments. It is more important that people get to know that our trainees are always cheerful and with smiles than they know what Down’s syndrome is or autism is. I am trying to get rid of discriminations against persons with disabilities through these projects. Cookies and bread serve as tools to let people know about the trainees, who are working hard, lighthearted, and with full of smiles. Our trainees can’t live by themselves, but with some supports they can live and shine with smiles. It’s hard to talk to people if you don’t know them. Knowing people makes communicating much easier.

 

Communication is very important I think. That leads to preparedness for disasters.

I believe that’s the most important thing as preparedness for disasters. Candles and electricity are important, but being able to ask for help and having a secure gathering space are the best ways to keep people safe at disasters.

地震発生

14：46はみなさんそろそろ帰る準備をしていた頃でしょうか？

当日は行事をしていました。ボランティア感謝会といって、一年間お世話になったボランティアの方に感謝を込めてお食事会だったり、贈り物をしたりっていうところで、一室にまとまってイベントをしていました。

　

では利用者さんと職員さんと、後はボランティアさん、大勢いらしたんですか？

そうですね、結構大勢だったと思います。スタッフも含めれば45人くらいですか。

　

14：46に発災した時の皆さんの様子はどうでしたか？避難に至るまでの経過などを教えてください。

イベント自体が佳境に差し掛かっていたので、パート職員の学生アルバイトが卒業する、その贈る言葉なんかを話している時に緊急アラームが鳴り始めて。こっちとしては「なんでマナーモードにしておかないんだ！？ちゃんとしておけよ」って思ったんですが、みんなの携帯が鳴るんですよね。それで、「なんだろうこれ」ってなりました。「地震が来ます」の文字を見たときにはもう揺れ始めていましたね。地震の時にはこうしようという避難訓練もしていたし、職員にも周知していたので、ドアの近くにいた職員は脱出経路の確保っていうので、引き戸のドアだったんですけど、ドアのところまで走って行って、ドアを抑えて。他の職員は利用者さんをテーブルの下にもぐらせるようにしていました。頭を隠すように。自分も守らなければいけないんですけど、まずは利用者さん優先で。

　

避難訓練は常日頃から行っていたんですか？

そうですね、当時は年間６回くらいやっていました。

　

２か月に１回くらいですか！？では素早い対応ができたんですね。

そうですね。

　

そのくらいの頻度で訓練をしていたら、利用者さんもそれほど慌てる様子はなかったですか？

そうですね、すごく長い時間揺れていたので、利用者さん自身も「これはただ事じゃない」っていうのを感じたかと思うので。そのぶん職員がすごく声をかけて「頭低くして！」「隠れて」「大丈夫だよ」って声をかけながら、収まるまで待っているというところでしたね。

僕なんかも地震って当時はあんまり怖くないと思っているところがあったんですが、ずいぶん長い間揺れていたので「さすがにこれはやばいんじゃないか」って思い始めましたね。建物が築50年、こぶし自体は1階に位置していたんですけど、2階から上は10何階建ての公営団地になってたんですよね。もともと地震なんかが起きたら建物的にはちょっと危ないかもしれないと言われていたところなんです。そんな話を思い出しながら「大丈夫かな」と不安になりながらも利用者さんに声をかけながら対応していたって感じでしたね。

　

避難訓練が年６回という話でしたが、内容は地震を想定した訓練でしたか？

地震と火災と総合訓練ですね。地震３回、火災3回みたいにやっていました。

日頃からの備え

順番が前後しますが、地震の直後に感じた脅威というか、心配事はどのようなものでしたか？

連絡が取れないっていうのが、一番困ったことでしたね。たまたまご家族に大きな被害がなく、翌日には全員引き渡しができましたが、もしかしたら、建物が倒壊したり怪我されたり、最悪お亡くなりになったりとか、後から思うとすごくそういうこともあり得る状況で、そうなったときに連絡取れない、でも利用者さんは一緒にいるっていうので、そこから先の対応というので考える部分はありましたね。とにかく一緒にいるしかないとは思うんですけど。情報が入ってこない、連絡が取れない恐怖っていうのはありましたね。

　

当時の情報取得手段というと、携帯とラジオですかね。

そうですね、ただ携帯電話は連絡用で使っていたため、充電も切れちゃって、充電する手段もなくなって、近くの公衆電話も長蛇の列でした。

　

それ以外のがけ崩れや道路の陥没、火災とか、そういった心配はありませんでしたか？

そうですね、そういったものはあまり考えなかったという感じですかね。まぁ、どこがどうなっているか本当に情報として何もわからなかったので。行き当たりばったりじゃないですけど、自分たちが自宅に帰る時も、その場で判断してルートや対応を決めて。

本部を立てて、対応や情報を収集して時系列で対応したことを書いていったりはしていたんですけど、結局スタッフがちりぢりになっちゃうと携帯もつながらないんで、そこでのやり取りはその場での判断になる部分も多くあったので、すごく責任を感じるという、そういう怖さもありましたね。

　

誰しもあんな災害初めてですから、やることなすこと全部初めてですからね。でも避難に関しては、訓練の成果が出たというところですかね。

そうですね。

　

法人全体として、避難訓練は年6回というのが定められているんですか？

各施設によって違いますね。年3回のところもあれば6回のところもあって。

　

当時の施設長さんが防災意識の高い方だったとか？

後は施設の状況や利用者の障害の程度に合わせてという感じで。防火管理者を設けて、避難訓練の計画を立てて…という決まりもあるので、それに則って計画を立てたんだと思います。

　

こぶしさんで防災グッズなどの備えはありましたか？

地震に備えてということで、防災ずきんはありました。避難訓練の時にはそれをかぶって避難するということをしていました。さすがにかぶってから避難とまではいきませんでしたが、駐車場に移動する前に職員が全員分の防災ずきんを持って、みなさんにかぶっていただいていました。あとはラジオだとか、必要になるものは、避難訓練の時に持ち出すものだとかもあったので、それに沿ってということですね。

　

利用者さんがパニックになるということもよく聞きましたが、割と皆さん冷静だったんですね。避難訓練は今も２カ月に１回くらいのペースで続いていますか？

今は年に3回ですね。火災・地震・総合と1回ずつやっています。

　

現在も乾パンやタオルのような備えはありますか？

備蓄品という形で、備蓄水やアルファ米、ガスコンロ・ガスボンベなど、一通りそろっています。あとは、電力の問題があるので、ソーラーでの蓄電ができるシステムを入れました。全館分を賄うことはできないけど、事務室コンセント分とか、照明分とか、最低限の電力を確保している感じです。３日間はそれで一部分だけでも稼働できる体制になっています。

　

震災時に備えていたものの中で、これのおかげで助かったというものはなんでしょうか？

防寒のためのものが役立ちましたね。まさかあんなに雪が降るとは思わなかったんですけど、でもいつ起きるかわからないと思うと、準備がいりますね。食べ物は緊張で意外と空腹にならなかったし、ある程度は我慢もできるので。寒さはそうはいきませんからね。

　

今まで２年近く取材をしてきた中で、ここまで事前に準備ができていたパターンはなかったですね。当時の記録がきちんとまとまっているというのは、ほとんど見たことがないですね。

こちらには備蓄品のリストなどもあります。

　

これらのリストや対応記録などは、のちに職員さんで振り返ってまとめたんですか？

本部にまとめて報告を上げなければいけなかったので、当時の施設長や主任が情報をまとめました。当時の職員が研修事業としてまとめた資料もありますので、ご覧ください。

避難が完了して、以前の事業所が使えなくなったので、拠点を転々としながら、1か月は利用者さんに自宅待機をしてもらってその間に活動できる拠点を調整した記録なんかも載っていると思います。市民センターやコミュニティセンター、仙台市にも掛け合って、そこで許可いただいた場所に集まって日中活動できる場所を開けましょうというところで各ご家庭にもサービス再開のお知らせなどをしていました。仮の場所なので、数か月後には立ち退かないといけないところもあって、その間に八木山市民センターをお借りして、そこを改築してそこに1年半くらい。そして、その間に今の場所の用地を仙台市からお借りして、建物を建てて、こちらに引っ越して、という状況でした。久しぶりにこれを見ると…懐かしいな（笑）

　

資料の中に「BCPの策定」というのが見えたんですが、こちらも震災前からやってらしたんですか？

いや、これは震災後ですね。事業継続計画ということで、震災もあって、ここを休所なく利用していただくためにということと、福祉避難所としても他の地域の方を受け入れてっていうケースもあるので、そこも含めてできるようにっていうので各施設でやっているところですね。現在の常務理事にこれらの内容に明るい者がおりまして、施設ごとに準備をしています。

　

もし今後同じようなことがあった際に、これは必要だと思うものはありますか？

一番はやはり通信だったので、震災時でもつながる手段は強化しておいた方がいいと思いますね。また、何をするにも電力が必要になるので、そちらの準備も。あとすごく困ったのは、ガソリンとかですよね。電力・燃料というのすごく困ったので。例えばガソリンとかも、ストックしておけるものがあって、震災時にも優先して受けられるものを法人として契約しているガソリン業者もあります。

　

それは震災などをにらんでの準備ということですね。

そうですね。

　

それはBCPに入っているんですか。

いや、これは周辺環境・周辺地域の資源のピックアップといったところでしょうかね。

後は、張り紙をして掲示をしたもの、それに気づかない、分からないということがあったので、必ずここをチェックしてくださいというようなものの周知を徹底していく必要があると思いますね。あと、こぶしでやっているのが、震災時の対応の時にここで基本的に待つか、ご家庭が迎えに来るか、迎えに来るが難しいので、こぶしの体制が整えばご自宅に送ってほしいか、各ご家庭と確認をしていて、同じ書面をご家庭とこぶしで一部ずつ保管して、基本的には何か大災害があったときに書面をもとに行動を決めるという風にはしています。毎年の面談時に、内容の更新確認をしています。