2021 Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 219-231
The purpose of this study was to clarify factors related to early evacuation in the case of widespread flooding caused by typhoon Hagibis in 2019. A questionnaire survey was conducted to determine the evacuation behavior of residents on the right bank of the Nakagawa River in the city of Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture. First, we analyzed the relationship between early evacuation and 43 variables obtained from four aspects of basic characteristics of residents, information acquisition, hesitation to evacuate, and advance countermeasures. Next, quantitative variables related to the geographic conditions of each resident’s house were added to the analysis. As a result, factors facilitating evacuation were the elevation of residences and a 20-m distance by road to an elevated site. In other words, residents who lived near or relatively close to slightly elevated areas within predicted flood zones tended to delay evacuation. Therefore, it is important to urge residents in such areas to evacuate early.
