2018 Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 209-221
In the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, the problems of stranded people who have difficulty returning home occurred in the Sendai city and other local cities, as well as in Tokyo metropolitan area. As there is possibility of occurrence of similar problems in local cities after the Nankai-Trough Earthquake in near future, local governments should prepare for this problems in advance in order to be able to focus on the other emergency responses just after the disaster occurs. This study extracts the expected issues of and countermeasures for stranded people in local cities, based on the survey on the stranded people problems in the local cities affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the survey on the countermeasures for stranded people in the affected local cities or other local cities.
Consequently, the authors indicate that the local government should not accept stranded people in the designated shelters for local evacuees and should prepare other facilities for stranded people in the area near a station where a lot of stranded people will be expected. We also indicate that it is important for local governments along a Shinkansen line to recognize the possibility that passengers of a Shinkansen train will be stranded people if the Shinkansen trains stop by an earthquake. As examples of useful countermeasures for stranded people in local cities, we suggest that publication of the name of enterprises which will prevent employees from returning home all at once in the website of local governments, dispatch system of building engineers to temporary shelter for their confirmation of safety just after an earthquake occurs, and so on. These examples have been executed in local cities which we interviewed. In addition, we propose the schema of collaboration between a railway company and local governments.
