SETTING UP PATTERNS OF EMERGENCY SHELTERS IN COASTAL PLAINS

A case study in Higashi Matsushima city after The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Abstract

 It has been pointed out that during large-scale disasters, some evacuees cannot receive necessary support since they evacuate to places other than the shelters pre-designated by the government. This is due to the fact that prior evacuation plans do not match the actual evacuation situation, and that the information collection and support system are not examined thoroughly beforehand. This research aims to contribute to the provision of measures on how to make preparations for the occurrence of non-designated shelters and the evacuees, and provide immediate support activities for the evacuees after the disaster. From the case study of Higashi-Matsushima City during the Great East Japan Earthquake, we examined the tendency of occurrence and causes of evacuation within the coastal plains, and showed that non-designated shelters were also found in flooded areas of coastal plains.

 In Chapter 2, we identified the main characteristics of the target city and the estimated damage to it, and compared the actual disaster response with the evacuation plans prepared by the local government. In Chapter 3, we showed the main features of non-designated shelters by comparing the situations in designated shelters against those in non-designated shelters during the disaster. In addition, we demonstrated that a large number of non-designated shelters were found within flooded areas.In Chapter 4, we provided the locations of the shelters and the number of evacuees on the map together with the locations of flooded areas in order to understand the spatial distribution of shelters and the evacuee population. In Chapter 5, we showed how the non-designated shelters were established in the flooded areas and inland areas, and examined the disaster response in these shelters.

 Based on the findings in the preceding chapters, Chapter 6 studied the tendency of occurrence of non-designated shelters in coastal plains and examined it from three different aspects, which were employed in previous research on Kamaishi City’s case: 1) damages due to tsunami and evacuation situations, 2) relationship between designated shelters and non-designated shelters, and 3) the actual function of facilities that were used as shelters during the disaster.

 From these results, we showed that in coastal plains, a large number of non-designated shelters were found in areas with significant elevation, such as hilly areas, and in locations surrounding the inundated areas, which confirms the results of previous research on cases along ria coasts. We also showed findings of a large number of non-designated shelters within the inundated areas of coastal plains. This was due to the fact that evacuation routes were long and there was traffic congestion, preventing people from evacuating to the designated areas before they were inundated by the tsunami. In addition, many evacuees found that moving out from temporary evacuation sites was not easy after inundation.