Tradition of difficult disaster response The key is "sharing" and digital utilization March 15 13:17
12 years is equivalent to "one turn" in terms of human age.
Immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake, a generational change is underway in local governments and other organizations that were on the front lines of disaster response, and they are searching for ways to pass on the lessons left behind by the unprecedented catastrophe to the next generation.
We covered the efforts of Sendai City, where more than 900 people died or went missing.
(Sendai Broadcasting Station/Yoko Idegami/Kenhiro Hiroike)
Emergency response headquarters in chaos immediately after the earthquake
"Anyway, I was confused. I received a series of inquiries from citizens saying, 'I can't contact my relatives and friends,' and 'I want you to tell me what's going on.' It was hard."
Ms. Emi Shibata, 56, an employee of Sendai City, said.
Immediately after the earthquake, she worked at the Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters of Miyagino Ward Office, answering phones and other duties.
At that time, there was a series of response tasks, such as information on damage received from the police and fire departments, contact from evacuation centers, and inquiries from citizens.
While the surrounding area was out of power, the ward office was on emergency power, so a large number of citizens visited and spent an uneasy night in the lobby.
It is said that citizens spread cardboard on the floor of the lobby, which was getting colder as the heating stopped, and wrapped themselves in blankets to keep themselves warm.
Mr. Shibata recalls that he spent his days asking himself what the city could do to help citizens regain their daily lives.
Mr. Shibata is now feeling a sense of crisis.
As the years have passed since the earthquake, my colleagues who shared the same hardships have retired one after another, and the number of employees who experienced that time has decreased.
increasing number of young staff
NHK asked some coastal municipalities that were badly hit by the tsunami from the earthquake about the percentage of their staff who entered after the disaster.
Since the departments included in each municipality differ, this is only reference data, but ▽Sendai City is about 50%, ▽Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture and Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture are about 40%, ▽Iwate Prefecture, where there were many casualties of staff Otsuchi-cho was about 60%.
As a local government employee who experienced an unprecedented catastrophe, Ms. Shibata continues to pass on important lessons to the next generation.
It's a group called "Team Sendai".
Together with other staff members, she continues to pass down her experiences of the earthquake to younger staff members.
“By experiencing the earthquake, I can predict what will happen in the future. I think I have to tell you."
Members from different departments, ages, and positions participate in the group.
He will tell directly what he was able to do and what he could not do at the time of the earthquake, including the details of the work he handled at the time, his experiences dealing with victims, and his failure stories.
From people's mouths to people's hearts
There are many ways to tell.
There is also a method of speaking directly to young staff members, and a method of reading aloud while playing video and BGM to make it easier for them to imagine the situation at the time.
What the team values is "to convey from people's mouths to people's hearts".
The aim is to share the anguish and conflict that cannot be conveyed in words.
One week before March 11, 2023, the members also made their presentations at an event organized by Sendai City to share their experiences and lessons learned from the disaster.
At the time of the earthquake, a male staff member who was in charge of managing the evacuation center revealed his pain in his heart that their response was inadequate.
For example, he said that although stockpiles and food were secured, it was not possible to provide them smoothly because the work allocation of the staff had not been decided.
In addition, he revealed that there was an imbalance in the work distribution of the staff at the site, such as some staff working late at night every day, while others had a small amount of work.
Sendai city employee
: “It’s better not to experience it, but there were many things that I couldn’t understand without experiencing it.
Ms. Emi Shibata
"By speaking directly, I would like to tell stories filled with emotions between the lines of record magazines."
Efforts using digital technology
Many local governments are trying to pass on these experiences and lessons learned from disaster response in training sessions, and by recording the content of interviews with staff in videos and journals.
However, these tasks are only needed in the event of a disaster, and it is difficult to acquire them in regular training, and every local government is struggling.
How can we collect information quickly and respond efficiently in the event of a disaster?
In recent years, efforts to utilize digital technology have been attracting attention as a solution to this problem.
Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture has introduced a system to collect damage information from citizens using the communication app "LINE".
Damage information posted by citizens is displayed on the map, and AI analyzes the details of the disaster and presents the work that should be prioritized to the staff.
In addition to being able to collect damage information quickly, it also reduces the burden on staff.
Sendai City has also started an initiative to use drones to publicize tsunami evacuation.
In dangerous coastal areas, it not only calls for evacuation on behalf of staff, but also allows you to check the coastal situation with the attached camera.
In addition, the introduction of the "Disaster response process management system 'BOSS'" developed by the University of Tokyo for local governments is progressing in local governments nationwide.
“Visualization” of necessary operations
It defines 500 processes of 48 types of operations that are necessary for local governments in the event of a disaster, and shows them in a flow chart.
In addition to being able to respond without omissions, you can store reference manuals and guidelines for each task, saving you the trouble of searching for them even in busy situations.
Although there is a weak point that an internet communication environment is required to share information on the system, it is a system that visualizes the thick "regional disaster prevention plan", so to speak, and has already been introduced by 45 local governments nationwide.
We interviewed a person in charge of Kumamoto City, one of the local governments that have introduced the system.
Shujiro Matsushita, Deputy Director, Kumamoto City Crisis Management and Disaster Prevention General Office
“Seven years have passed since the Kumamoto Earthquake, and the experience level of the employees in Kumamoto City has decreased. Even employees who are not accustomed to disasters have come to know what to do next.It is not enough to just introduce the system, but to check and improve the flow at the training site and use it in practice. I want to keep it
In addition, Associate Professor Sojun Numata of the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, who is the development leader of BOSS, says:
"In the event of a disaster that requires a huge amount of response, it will be possible to grasp the progress of work in other departments, and it may also be useful in considering where to prioritize the limited number of staff. If the number of local governments that do so increases, it will be possible to smoothly share information on the system with support staff dispatched from other local governments. It will be possible to comprehensively respond to disasters through 'mutual assistance' from '.'
Digital Agency aims to spread technology
In the future, it is expected that digital technology will be used to solve the problem of staff inexperience.
In December of last year, the Digital Agency launched a council with approximately 290 organizations, including companies and local governments, to support the digital formation in the field of disasters and disaster prevention. We aim to promote the spread of new digital technologies that lead to the improvement of
Lessons learned from past disasters
Experiences from past major disasters, including the Great East Japan Earthquake, are filled with many failures and lessons to be learned.
Many experiences were put to use at the site of the subsequent disaster, and they are also being used to develop digital technology to support these operations.
However, simply introducing these tools does not solve the problem.
In order to prepare for disasters, it is necessary to firmly pass on the lessons learned from the earthquake.
Sendai Broadcasting Station Reporter
Yoko Idegami
Sends articles mainly digitally at the network news department and the metropolitan area station.
In charge of city administration from August 2022
Sendai Broadcasting Station News Desk
Takeshi Hiroike
Catastrophe/Regional Information Section Commentator