Learning from earthquakes, tsunamis requires shoes on the ground – Times-Standard

Every day last week, Facebook reminds me of a trip to Japan 10 years ago. I was part of a prospective study of the Tohoku -oki earthquake or the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami. I spent 10 days in some of the worst affected areas of Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures to determine which factors reduced or exacerbated the effects.

The purpose of post-event studies is to document what happened. In the case of a tsunami, much of the data is ephemeral and quickly disappears as weather and debris cleanup removes its trace. Some groups focus on measurements of tsunami water heights and the extent of the inundation area. These measurements are used to calibrate the tsunami models so that we can confirm the reliability of the risk models.

Other groups measure tsunami deposits. I spent two weeks in 2005 with a team documenting sediment thickness and properties in areas that were inundated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Paleo-Tsunami sediments from events hundreds to thousands of years ago are one of the main ways of looking at tsunami hazards in areas that have not experienced tsunamis in historical times and studying Modern sediments are clues to decipher ancient ones.

I have worked with engineering groups to examine structural damage and those looking for environmental impacts. Our group in Samoa (2009) looked at response issues such as debris removal and storage. By 2011, I realized it was important to get as large a picture of the effects as possible and my skill was to inquire and listen to as many different people as possible.

I met Megumi Sugimoto three months before the tsunami in Japan at the autumn meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Meg was a sociologist at the University of Tokyo Seismological Research Institute and gave a lecture on tsunami recovery in Indonesia. We then spoke about her coming to Humboldt to assist in our preparedness efforts.

The Japanese tsunami of 2011 turned those plans upside down. We decided to join it in Japan once international scholars were allowed in. The immediate post-disaster period is always a difficult time, and the US State Department has banned Americans from traveling to Japan until late April. I left on April 29th, once the travel ban was lifted.

I met Meg at a hotel in Sendai and we planned our strategy for the next 10 days. Most of my field trips after the tsunami involved groups of five or more. There were 13 of us in Peru (2001) and 17 respondents in the Indian Ocean Survey (2005). There are advantages and disadvantages to a large team. It is useful when you want to collect a lot of data in a short period. But the logistics can be difficult. Meg and I wanted to understand the human influences and decided we could only work better as two. As long as I wore sunglasses and a hoodie over my black coat, both of us could pass for the locals and move freely in the most affected areas. In nine days of fieldwork, we were only denied entry once, and the problem was quickly resolved by walking down another street.

We rented a car and found Meg a former mountain resort to stay in just west of Ioannuma which recently reopened to provide access to hot springs for those evacuated from the tsunami. From there we can set out on day trips to sites in Miyagi and Iwate Prefecture. Management was kind enough to allow me to use the hotel computer to post daily blogs and keep in touch with other teams.

We focused on three areas: tsunami awareness, evacuation (what people did and what hindered evacuation efforts), and post-event relief efforts. Starting in Natori and ending up in Rikuzentakata, we visited the schools used as evacuation sites, the Sendai airport that served as a refuge for hundreds of people and temporary shelters and dwellings and spoke to officials and survivors.

I don’t have the space to summarize everything we learned, but some things stand out. More than 95% of the people who lived and worked in the flooded area survived. The level of awareness of the tsunami and participation in evacuation exercises was high. Unfortunately, the tsunami was larger than expected. Sea walls and hazard maps were based on an earthquake of magnitude 8, not 9.

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating. Vertical evacuation structures should only be used as a last resort; It is always best to reach higher ground outside of an area of ​​immersion. Any designated shelter or evacuation site should be equipped with supplies to provide for basic necessities for at least a week. Number of seconds – the faster you respond to natural or official warnings, the more likely you are to survive. At least a lot of effort must be put into planning relief and recovery, such as issuing warnings and evacuations.

Our last field day was on May 8, 2011. It started with a 5.7-magnitude aftershock. We felt one or two aftershocks nearly every day and this is a constant reminder that earthquake is the cause of what we have been studying. We spent the morning investigating the temporary housing situation and talking to the many people who had been housed in a public apartment building that had been converted into a shelter. They were lucky. We’ve seen many families still residing in large public spaces separated from each other only by flimsy cardboard partitions.

On the way back to Sendai, we stop by to visit Chosunji, a famous Buddhist temple established by Lord Fujiwara in the early 12th century to promote peace and reconciliation after the fierce civil wars that claimed the lives of many in his clan. It was the perfect final note of our fieldwork, calm, beautiful, and proof that balance can return after tragedy. A reminder of how much I appreciate my presence in Japan.

Note: Blog posts and report were posted at https://kamome.humboldt.edu/taxonomy/term/11.

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