Refuge of the Sufferers from Flood Disaster

Abstract

Refuge of sufferers from the Typhoon 10th of 1986 was investigated by field works and a questionnaire survey. Four struck regions whose natural and social conditions were different each other were selected to discuss on three themes; (1) fact of refuge of sufferers, (2) factors influencing on taking refuge, and (3) general characteristics of behavior of people against flood disaster.(1) Two distinct results were obtained by comparing the fact of refuge of sufferers of four regions. One is that the heavier the region was damaged, the lower the refuge ratio was. The other is that inhabitants who are less interested in flood-fighting works were not apt to take refuge. Also, appearance of a bias to normalization was recognized in every region.(2) Three factors highly influenced on refuge of people were extracted by discriminant analysis on taking refuge. They are the depth of flooding water over a floor level, the frequency of participation in training of flood fighting works and the number of story of a living building. On the other hand, an experience in flood disaster was regarded not to be effective for taking refuge. Demographic factors such as age and sex were not relative to taking refuge.(3) Some articles about refuge of people during a heavy rain were reviewed in order to examine the results obtained in this study and to extract general characteristics of human behavior against flood disaster. Important results are as follows:(1) Refuge taken during a heavy rain was usually carried out in order not to evacuate before circumstances getting worse, but to escape from dangerous conditions;(2) An evacuation order does not become effective, if it is not issued while people are able to take refuge easily;(3) In case of that a flood water level was higher than the highest in the past, people experienced in flood disaster are apt to misjudge circumstances;(4) People living in a two-storied building have a tendency not to take refuge.