Monday October 19, 2009

Shaking with fear

A Sip of Matcha
By SARAH MORI

Tremors are becoming more frequent in Japan, and this is cause for concern.

JAPAN is susceptible to all kinds of natural disasters, the most recent being Typhoon Melor which battered Honshu on Oct 8.

Taifu (typhoons) in Japan are numbered according to the sequence of their occurrence in the year. Hence, Typhoon Melor is known as Typhoon No.18.

Like stealthy saboteurs, earthquakes are the most fearsome to me. Sometimes we are jolted from sleep in the wee hours. “Jishin da! (It’s an earthquake!)” I holler and quickly switch on the TV for the news.

Be prepared: Youths learning to extinguish fire.

The Japan Meteorological Agency uses the Shindo scale to measure the seismic intensity felt at a given location, rather than the Richter scale which measures the earthquake’s magnitude at the epicentre.

Shindo 0 is imperceptible; Shindo 1 to 3 are minor tremors; Shindo 4 and 5 cause objects to fall, furniture to move and occasional damage to roads and less earthquake-resistant buildings; and Shindo above 5 is perilous.

When a series of strong temblors and aftershocks hit Niigata Prefecture on Oct 23, 2004, and July 16, 2007, we could feel the tremors in the Kanto region, which was thousands of kilometres away.

So far, the worst earthquake was the Great Kant Earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 on the Richter scale. It struck the Kant plain on Sept 1, l923, during lunchtime. Cooking fires were turned into conflagrations. Simultaneous typhoons generated winds which fanned the flames across cities.

The massive temblor caused tsunami (tidal waves) and landslides. It devastated Tokyo, Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Shizuoka, resulting in widespread damage and over 100,000 casualties.

Securing cupboards in case of an earthquake.

A major earthquake is expected to hit the Kant region once every 70 years, that is, around 1993. Instead, Kobe and the surrounding cities were hit by the Great Hanshin Earthquake with Shindo 7.3 on Jan 17, 1995. It claimed 6,434 lives, injured 415,000 people and severely damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.

People were shaken after that cataclysm. Survival kits and earthquake fastening equipment sold like hot cakes.

My father-in-law started securing the furniture to the wall and ceiling, and attaching bolts on cupboard doors. He placed a fire extinguisher at different locations of the house and kept within reach a survival kit in a backpack.

As the years passed, that backpack was eventually moved to the attic. My father-in-law passed away in 2007. One day, during a cleaning up session, we found the canned bread and biscuits; their shelf life had expired 12 years earlier!

Although we cannot avoid natural catastrophes, we can be prepared. Have ready in a knapsack a flashlight, a battery-powered radio, First Aid kit, medication, face masks, blanket, raincoat, footwear, gloves, toiletries, some money, copies of identification and family photos, and enough canned food and water to last a few days. Don’t forget to replenish the canned foodstuff and change the batteries from time to time.

Never place heavy objects in places where they could easily fall during an earthquake and cause injury or block exits.

Familiarise oneself with designated evacuation areas marked on signboards in the neighbourhood or workplace. They are usually schools and community centres which are stocked for emergencies.

Municipalities provide booklets on the dos and don’ts in a calamity. Schools, as well as private and public organisations conduct disaster drills now and then.

Last month, accompanied by two adults, my son and five church friends visited Honjo Bosaikn (Life Safety Learning Centre) in Tokyo for their junior youth outing. It is one of the centres which provide hands-on experience in dealing with disasters. Reservation is required beforehand, though.

An instructor guided them throughout the simulations. The whole tour took about two hours.

In the 3D theatre, the seats vibrated in sync with the earthquake footage, simulating real-life tremors.

In the fire-fighting training section, they learned how to use a fire extinguisher (filled with water only) to extinguish a virtual fire on the screen. Some of the fire-fighters’ uniforms they tried on were heavy!

Following the lead of the instructor and covering their noses, they evacuated the rooms in the smoke maze section.

Instead of the artificial respiration training, they chose the rainstorm simulation. With raincoats on and gripping the railings, they withstood a “typhoon” in a room. Scary!

Next, they made simulated emergency calls to 119 with pre-recorded messages. They also tried the disaster prevention Q&A quizzes and games on the monitors.

The Shindo 7 earthquake simulation was the most terrifying.

Some panicked and didn’t have time to switch off the main gas valve. Others forgot to open the door for an escape route. All had to cover their heads with a cushion and take refuge under a table from the fake falling objects and toppling furniture.

Panic poses the greatest danger during an earthquake. After a major earthquake, there are likely to be aftershocks. Thus precautions are still necessary.

Sarah Mori is a Malaysian married to a Japanese and has been living in Japan since l992.