関西地方で地震が起きてしまいました。亡くなられた方のご冥福をお祈り申し上げます。
わたしも家族、親戚、友人が多く関西に住んでいるので、SNSでの地震後の自宅の写真を幾つか目にする機会がありました。本棚が倒れている家もあり、夜は余震が来るのではないかと怯えて寝られないという書き込みも。みなさんの生活が早く落ち着きますように。
先月は、地震、防災関連の仕事をしていたので、専門家にいろいろと話を聞いて回っていました。東北の市役所防災課の責任者だった人、大学で津波の研究をしている人、被災に遭い、すんでのところで命が助かった人。東北の場合は津波の恐れが大きいので、今回の近畿地方とは話が違うのですが、とにかく地震への備えの一番大きな要素は「訓練」「教育」だとみなさん、おっしゃっていました。自分の住んでいる地方ではどんな災害が起こりえるか、その教育を地域ぐるみで取り組み、一環として訓練を行う。それが必要だということです。
それから寿命が伸びて、一人で素早く歩けない方も多くいらっしゃいますよね。家族に車椅子を必要とする方が一人いると、避難するのにも時間がかかるし一人では車椅子を運べません。そういう時の対処法も常日頃から考えておくことが必要となります。
天災は、いつ起こるかわかりません。備えておく必要がありますね。
There was a big earthquake in the Kansai region. My sincere condolences to those who lost their lives.
I have my family and many relatives and friends living in the area and have seen some pictures of their homes on social network. One says he is scared to sleep because there may be aftershocks. I hope their lives will go back to normal soon.
I had opportunities to talk to some earthquake experts last month since I was working with someone who needed to write about earthquakes and disaster preparedness. We talked to a former city official in Tohoku (Northern Japan) who was in charge of disaster preparedness section, professors studying tsunami or sea walls, people who almost their lives at the event of March 11, 2011. There is a high risk of tsunami in Tohoku so it's a different story from this time of earthquake in Kansai, but everyone said most important preparedness for earthquakes is drill and education. You need to know what kind of disasters can happen in your area. Education includes drills in a community is necessary.
There are many people who cannot walk fast by themselves because we have a longer longevity. If you have one family member on a wheelchair, that means you would need more time to evacuate and one more person to carry someone on a wheelchair. You couldn't do it by yourself. Thinking how you should address those things is necessary too.
You never know when a natural disaster occurs. You need to be prepared.
