Single-person Drill for Tsunami Evacuation and Disaster Education

Abstract

Urgent issues of tsunami risk reduction on the residents’ side after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake can be summarized as, i) residents inclined to depend on disaster experts and governmental agencies, ii) they had been put on a subordinate position and, iii) their activities such as evacuation drill had scarcely been discussed once again after implementation. To cope with these issues, this study suggested a new approach called “single-person drill” which specifically emphasized personal individuals’ behavior. Results of each evacuation case were edited in the form of “multi-screen movie” that has been made by a TV program-making company. By doing single-person drill, residents, who are the eventual evacuees during tsunami evacuation, could gradually develop their abilities to get apart from dependency situations. Meanwhile, by checking the advantages and disadvantages in their practices with “multi-screen movie”, residents can become more aware of tsunami risks, which could motivate them to consider efficient strategies actively. In addition, since school children have participated in the drill by actually supporting the evacuees, disaster education was improved concurrently with intergenerational risk communication. Activities of both the tsunami evacuation and the disaster education are expected to make contributes to tsunami risk reduction.