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Natural disaster drill and experience program at Safety learning center in Tokyo

Tokyo government carries out free experience-learning programs at its natural disaster prevention facilities. It is advisable to take part in one of the drills to learn how to cope with natural disasters, especially earthquakes, that will help you get rid of anxiety.

Report: Disaster prevention experience-learning

Honjo Life Safety Learning Center, located in Sumida-ku ward in Tokyo, holds experiential learning tours, intending to let people know about necessary preparations and what actions to take when a natural disaster occurs.

The program I took part in was a 1hr-and-50min tour, and a basic program conducted four times a day in Japanese. Those who want to take the tour are required to make a prior reservation as a group. Individuals can join the tour without a reservation as long as seats are available. It is suggested individuals also book in advance.

What you learn at the beginning is “fear”

The tour started with a video watching. It was the video showing the moments of tsunami attacks hit right after the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. While watching the catastrophic scenes, about for 25 minutes, I was getting filled with fear and sadness that made me feel hard to breathe. When it became too depressing to keep watching, the video finally ended, has made all the participants emotionally upset. We moved on to the next session.


(Image Photo) We watched the video with English subtitles in a screening room.

Learning how to cope with earthquakes - Preparation is the key

In the next session, we learned what we could do to prepare against earthquakes. Since we were still reflecting the dreadful scenes in the video in mind, everybody was serious and ready to learn. The instructor taught us practical hints that can be helpful for anybody. For example, we learned that tap water kept in a cool place would last for 3 days, and you should have a picture in mind for what actions to take in situations of when a shake occurs, in your house, or at the office.

Experiencing simulated earthquakes

This experience was not only to know of the impact from the shaking but also to learn what actions immediately to take if an earthquake occurs when you are at home. The actions to take are; Protect your head with a cushion, open the door and secure an exit, and shut down the circuit breaker, which must be done in a series even if you are in a state of shock.

Although I had seen earthquake simulation vehicles at some local community events, it was the first time that I experienced the simulation. It used to look like fun as most people were "kind of" laughing while experiencing the shake. However, it was not at all. It seems that emotional confusion made the people laughing faces. I could hardly have any emotion, no fun, even no fear while being roughly shaken up. At seismic intensity 7, I was barely holding a table leg, and that was all I could do. Besides, I had pain by hitting myself on the floor.


There is a significant difference between seismic intensity 6 and 7. Be sure and shut the circuit breaker down right after the quake, then open the door to ensure an exit.

Typhoon and Heavy rain

After understanding the power of earthquakes, we had another simulated experience - heavy rain. Nowadays, we seem to have torrential rain more frequently than before. Nobody can tell when and where it comes about.

Putting on a solid raincoat and rain boots, we were ready to get inside of the typhoon simulation room. We were instructed to stand side by side and hold to a support bar, then, a strong wind started to blow with jetting-like water from the front.

We held fast to the support bar to keep ourselves standing without blown down backward. Thanks to the raincoat, I didn't get soaked, but I felt my body was getting cold in a short time. I learned the risk of hypothermia from being under the rain.

Firefighting

In this session, we learned how to use a fire extinguisher and simulated firefighting. Although I was familiar with fire extinguishers as I had seen them at public places, I didn't know much about the usage. I actually didn't know there are three different fire extinguishers distinguished by the color of labels put on them.

Types of fire extinguishers (for home)
White label: Regular
Yellow label: Oil (kerosene, petrol)
Blue label: Electric equipment/devices with the voltage of 100V and 200V

The most important thing to do is shout out loud "Fire! (Kaji-da!)" and let all the people nearby notice the danger, then, quickly take action to extinguish the fire which goes like the following steps; Firstly, keep 3 meters away from the fire and set a fire extinguisher, second, pull the pin and aim at the base of fire, third, squeeze the lever. The fire-extinguishing agent will be gone in 15 seconds or so.

Fire Evacuation

The last program was a fire drill. The instructor, a former fireman, explained how to escape safely from fire and told us real-life stories about what he has seen at the disaster sites, that made us seriously again. We listened quietly.


They say that smoke spreads at the speed of 3 to 5 meters per second.

He explained that in many cases people lose their life from carbon monoxide poisoning due to breathing smoke. Carbon monoxide, having no smell and taste, is breathed into the lung before you know it, then, you start having difficulty in moving your body. Considering that smoke spreads very first, running to escape is too dangerous. To escape from a fire site, you must to crouch down and walk quickly along the wall.

Tips for escaping from a fire
1. When moving from a room to another, try not opening the door immediately and widely. Try opeing the door a little bit.
2. To prevent the fire from spreading, shut the door you opened.
3. Move along the wall for not losing the way to the exit. Make a fist and keep touching the wall while moving ahead.
4. Do not change your hand (fist) touching the wall, otherwise, you may lose direction.

After having learned the way to escape, we experienced the act in a simulation room. The facility, filled with fake smoke, was comprised of a bright room and dark rooms, was like a simple maze that length was just 15m or so.

As I had just learned everything needed and it looked so simple, I felt I can make it with no trouble. However, I couldn’t. Once I stepped into the dark room from the bright room, I quickly lost the way to go, and so were other participants. We bumped into each other while finding the way to the exit when we had forgotten to crouch down. I felt relief when I got out of the exit where I was told that my hand was open, not a fist. If it were a real-life fire…This experience-learning surely was a learning experience.

関連情報

Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park
防災体験学習(そなエリア東京)
https://www.tokyorinkai-koen.jp/pdf/pamphlet_en_2.pdf
(PDF)

Honjo Life Safety Learning Center
東京消防庁 本所都民防災教育センター
https://tokyo-bskan.jp/bskan/honjo/

Kita city Earthquake Science Museum
東京都北区防災センター(地震の科学館)
https://www.city.kita.tokyo.jp/bosaikiki/bosai-bohan/bosai/shobosho/kagaku/index.html

Tokyo Bosai
東京防災ホームページ
https://www.bousai.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/

Article in Japanese:Natural disaster drill and experience program at Safety learning center in Tokyo

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