誰かが言わなきゃならない

1. Goods to develop for evacuation life (2): Partitions

Everybody lives (sleeps) together in a limited space in the big evacuation
camp like the Big Palette. Perhaps it might be pleasant among family
members or friends occasionally. But it is not for days. It keeps us restless: other people’s eyes; children’s cries; loud conversations around; coughing sounds; walking sounds of neighbors, etc. Somebody goes to a toilet during the night, one after another. People start to build cardboard partitions and
enclose their own living space.
Ready-to-build partitions would be helpful, if they are regularly stocked in evacuation camps or potential camp buildings: Clean, sound blocking, self-standing, adequately tall and gently colored partitions. The government, the local governments and industries could cooperate in developing such standardized ready-to-build partitions for future potential emergencies.

2. NHK claims, but …

An NHK board member claimed this morning on air:
? NHK delivered the flash news on the earthquakes, the tsunami and the nuclear
accidents starting with the earthquake early warning message;
? NHK delivered accurate and fastest information;
? The reports were in easy-understandable and non-scaring language in timely
manner;
? The reports are valued by the overseas media; and
? NHK could get a higher profile.

No lessons for itself to correct or improve? NHK news on disasters was certainly fastest, but commercial TV stations are faster in reporting on the situation around the Fukushima Daiichi NPP. This is really what the nuclear refugees want to get. No TV programs were delivered to us immediately after the earthquake shock, and news only in sounds in the first evacuation night in Kawauchi-mura on the next day.
Couldn’t NHK deploy mobile stations for the people in the disaster areas? Shouldn’t it have prepared mobile power sources (solar-, wind-, or battery-powered) nationwide in order to meet the mission in emergencies as the
public broadcast? It is not bad that NHK could get high profiles overseas, but before that shouldn’t it get appreciated by the people in the disaster areas of its own nation by delivering the information they need and want?

3. Town office must not forget …

The town office is kept busy meeting so many visitors all the time. No prior experience of this busy in handling non-routine and diversified issues. The staff deserves hearty support for meeting the needs solicited. They seem pretty occupied by day-to-day work of all sorts of matters. If they could practice the following, their work would be more commendable.
Immediate note taking; Immediate reporting; Immediate response; Immediate information sharing; and Collection and analysis of the requests as much as possible. The town staff are so accustomed to daily routine work and
not ready to handle such non-routine work as in an emergency. It is time now to take this approach for improving their service to the town people and collecting relevant information and knowhow for future potential evacuation and/or any emergencies. The practice is helpful in upgrading routine services, too..

4. Tsunami impacts on my hometown Tomioka-cho

Tomioka-cho faces the Pacific like next towns and villages. It was also hit by the March 11 tsunami but the impacts were limited. Our neighbor Namie-cho had very big impacts in its estuary area of Takase River. Our town also has a fishery port and an estuary, too, but they are small-sized. The big tsunami destroyed the JR Tomioka Station, all buildings and houses built on the
coastal side of Highway 6. But it was limited to just 20 people who died or were missing.
Why so? The town generated the hazard map in advance, the block leaders were disciplined to mark constantly the aged and weak people in the block, and had regular drills to let them evacuate first in an emergency. They were all safe. The victims are the police people and the fishermen. The 150 year-old house of the mayor was also destroyed. His family was safe.
On the next day March 12, the evacuation in limited information started (Day 1 of evacuation). The mayor had a difficult time: to make the decision to evacuate with little available information; where to evacuate; and his own evacuation journey. He was hospitalized some days later due to high blood pressure.
Now he is back to work in his temporary office and moves around for various negotiations and for visiting town people in other four evacuation camps. All mayors did wonderful jobs in handling real nuclear evacuation, the first in Japan after the accidents.
Before long, dramatic stories of them and their staff members will be known when the situation calms down.

5. A slight hope ahead?

TEPCO disclosed its blue print for terminating the accidents. It foresees that radioactive materials will be surely contained in the first three months (Step 1) and that the reactors will be brought down to cold standby (Step 2).
Some of us in the Big Palette were, on one hand, disappointed to know it would take more than six months to end this evacuation life. On the other hand, however, a slight hope to return home could be received when Minister Kaieda (METI) touched upon, in his press interview, the possibility of graded (step-by-step) termination of evacuation in the scheduled evacuation zones.
Quite a few people are listening carefully to the radiation level measurement results reported on the in-house daily broadcast. Some other people are skeptical, though, wondering if Tomioka-cho would be same, because it is designated as an emergency evacuation zone.