Tonankai Earthquake
Two strong earthquakes have just hit western Japan, especially Kii peninsula, Wakayama, Mie, and Nara, as you can see in this news report. I live in Misono, Mie prefecture, and here the earthquakes registered an intensity of 3 and 4, respectively. Also, other small earthquakes often occured in the Tonankai Area. On the map, the blue area is Tokai, the green one is Tonankai, and the red one is Nankai area (sorry, in Japanese).
Then:
Tonankai area is a place that has been struck by an earthquake roughly every century for the past 500 years. The last one occued in 1944, and it killed 1000 people. The committee said the next Tonankai earthquake could measure around 8.1 on the Richter scale and that there was a 60 percent chance of it hitting in the next 30 years, up from the 50 percent estimate it made in September 2001. (Reuters)
So, I’ve been very, very scared recently.
As for my family, we had never prepared against the next earthquake. However, now we decided to prepare useful requirement for an emergency. I made a emergency list as below:
Neccesities
- water (3 liters a day per person)
- radio
- flashlight
- battery
- valuables (money, bank booklet, seal, driver’s licence, health book)
- fire extinguisher
- food (hardtack, rice cake, retort pouch, instant food, cans, rock candy, umeboshi)
Useful equipment
- medicine
- helmet
- clothes
- blanket
- glove
- tissue
- rope
- plastic wrap…
It’s endless….
Have you made any preparations for earthquakes? What did you do?
Comments
Thanks for your comment, kevin.
>I guess I always assumed that even if I had an earthquake kit, but I can’t reach it, it is no good.
Your are right! The earthquake kit might be unuseful. I’ll prepare a whistle. Also, if I feel a tremor, I’ll come out from the house as soon as possible. It is because the outside is safest unless something big falls down on me. Then, I’ll dig over the debris, and look for the earthquake kit I prepared.
Yay! Kevin! All the way from Sweden!
The first quake scared me quite a bit. I was at my office up on the fourth floor when it struck; I jumped up and opened the door, then kept watching the monitor sway back and forth for a minute, hoping the roof wasn’t going to cave in, trying to remember to breathe, listening to the things that came crashing down in other parts of the building.
I was at home when the second one struck, and this one didn’t bother me nearly as much, although I hear it was a bit stronger than the first.
There seems to be a big rush now for all sorts of gear that would come handy during a quake-related disaster, and I’ve heard the stores are scrambling to met the demand. Myself, I haven’t given much thought to it, although I realise it might be a good idea.
My own country isn’t quake-prone at all, but there’s a big Civil Protection programme intended to keep private citizens out of harm’s way. The programme got started during the Cold War, and one of its priorities used to be bomb-proof shelters designed to keep people safe in the event of an attack on the country, nuclear or otherwise. So nuclear shelters were added to school buildings, and newly built private houses were required to have basements with thick concrete walls and heavy, bomb-proof doors.
Recently, the whole programme shifted its focus to natural disasters like flooding, but the nuclear shelters are still there.
The programme came with regular appeals to stock up on emergency provisions, so many families have hoards of canned food, pasta, sugar and flour, among other things, that should last them a while in case they ever need it.
Happily, the the whole arrangement has yet to prove itself in a truly serious upheaval.
>As for my family, we had never prepared against the next earthquake. However, now we decided to prepare useful requirement for an emergency.
I have two bags beside my futon: one is packed with the changes of clothes and the other is with valuables. Even if the house crashes down, I can take them back as long as it is destroyed by fire.
When I was staying at a hotel in a small island in southern part of Kii Peninsula on September 8th, the earthquake occured. I was scared because the hotel is surrounded by the sea. (I thought tsunami might hit the island.) Later, the TV news reported that there was no worry of tsunami, and finally I could go to bed that night.
Hey, Yukiko!
I’m happy to hear from you that you were safe.
Yokatta-ne! How was your trip? Did you enjoy aside from the earthquake?
First, I should correct my comment.
>Even if the house crashes down, I can take them back as long as it is destroyed by fire.
I should have said ‘as long as it isn’t destroyed’.
I enjoyed the trip very much! The weather was nice and the sea was so beautiful!! I went to the cape called Shio-no-misaki, the south end of the main land of Japan. Everyone who has been there say that the scenery is indescribable and that I should go there at least once. I understood them when I went up the lighthouse on that cape and looked down the vast ocean.
Yukiko, I am happy that you had a good time in Kii peninsula. I haven’t been there, so I enjoyed looking over photos taken by you.
>If you are stuck under three floors of broken building, you will use all your energy to scream for help.
Kevin’s comment reminds me of the movie, ‘the Titanic’. I thought about the heroine whistling to atrract a rescue team.
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The most important thing I did was have a whistle on my keychain. If you are stuck under three floors of broken building, you will use all your energy to scream for help. It is really easy to blow a whistle though, and you have enough energy to blow for days. It really increases your chance of being found.
I guess I always assumed that even if I had an earthquake kit, but I can’t reach it, it is no good. At least with a whistle I have a chance.