More than 500 earthquakes have occurred since last Thursday, with focuses in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures. Due to fear of aftershocks, over 90,000 people have vacated their homes and are huddled together in evacuation centers.
It is important to provide relief and assistance needed by those affected swiftly and surely.
Evacuation centers are packed with a greater number of residents than expected by local municipalities, and we see so many cases where it is impossible to accommodate all of them. Some evacuees have been passing the nights outdoors, lying on tatami mats and covering themselves with blankets.
The government is using ferryboats, rental housing units, inns and the like as lodging facilities. It must prepare as many facilities as possible so that disaster-affected people can rest properly.
Water and food supplies have not reached the evacuation centers in sufficient quantities. The evacuees have to wait for a long time to receive supplies, including rice balls.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has said that of the 900,000 meals the government has decided to send to the disaster hit areas, 365,000 would be delivered by Monday. He also said the government plans to double the amount of food supplies to 1.8 million meals.
A major problem is that even if food and other supplies are transported to places designated by the municipalities concerned, it is difficult to distribute them to some evacuation centers due to severed roads and a shortage of manpower.
In the aftermath of the the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, there were many cases in which relief supplies remained piled up at collection centers.
Learning from this, it is necessary to determine what kind of goods are needed at each evacuation center and transport them expeditiously using Self-Defense Forces’ planes and the U.S. Force’s Osprey transport aircraft and others.
The nerves of disaster victims are stretched to the limit due to the incessant earthquakes. Their stress will keep increasing as living in groups at evacuation centers, where it is difficult to protect their privacy, drags on.
In the case of the 2004 Niigata prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake, the victims who died after their health deteriorated due to the stress and fatigue of long periods as evacuees and the worsening of chronic diseases, accounted for nearly 80 percent of the death toll of 68 in the aftermath of the quake. In the aftermath of the latest earthquakes in Kumamoto, a 77-year-old woman has died of acute heart failure at an evacuation center in the city of Aso.
Doctors and public health nurses have been sent from across the country to disaster-hit areas with the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry playing a central role. We hope they will take care of quake survivors both mentally and physically.
Even healthy people who are subjected to long periods of immobility, such as spending nights in their cars, must be careful of a condition known as economy class syndrome, in which blood clots develop in veins. Taking care of one’s health is important by, for instance, moving arms and legs periodically.
In areas where water supplies have been cut, there is a shortage of water for flushing toilets and washing hands. The worsening hygienic environment is worrying. If an epidemic breaks out, it will threaten the lives of elderly people whose physical strength has declined. Frequent sterilization is indispensable.
The government is sending officials from various ministries and agencies to municipalities in the disaster-stricken areas. They must strive to quickly improve the living conditions of the evacuees.
