Nursing Homes Ponder Disaster Response after Aomori Quake

Tokyo, Dec. 11 (Jiji Press)–The powerful earthquake that struck off Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on Monday night has highlighted problems nursing homes there face in coping with disasters. After the quake, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued an advisory that warns of a possible subsequent temblor off the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido and the Sanriku Pacific coastal area of northeastern Japan. The advisory, issued for the first time, covers 182 municipalities from Hokkaido down to Chiba Prefecture in eastern Japan for a week until midnight Monday. The government is urging residents in those places to stay ready to evacuate immediately if they feel any strong shaking. While some care facilities for the elderly or people with disabilities say that they are prepared for such an emergency, others are less sure how to respond. Yutaro Deto, 32, head of nursing home Horiguchi Hibari-en in Aomori’s Misawa, said, “We are always alert to (the possibility of) disasters.” Deto explained that he reinspected doors and furniture to ensure evacuation routes are clear. The facility maintains stockpiles of water and food, receiving them through regular deliveries. Since the advisory was issued, the facility has tried collecting necessary relief supplies from stores nearby to prepare for a situation in which deliveries stop, Deto added. In Hokkaido’s Urakawa, staff at Urakawa Koyo-en, a care facility housing some 30 residents with disabilities, checked all of the evacuation routes to a hill in case of large tsunami. “Each resident needs special care, and we don’t have enough staff to evacuate everyone at once,” the 56-year-old head of the facility said. “We don’t know exactly what kind of measures we should take and to what extent.” A source at a nursing home in Aomori’s Hachinohe, where Monday’s quake measured up to upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, voiced similar concern. “Evacuating residents outside would be difficult at night, when we have fewer staff members,” the source also said, adding that all they can do is move the residents to the second floor. “Honestly speaking, we’ve not done anything special,” said a man who heads a nursing home for senior people with disabilities in Chiba Prefecture, which neighbors Tokyo. Although the facility regularly conducts evacuation training and checks its supplies, he was not familiar with the subsequent quake advisory, the man in his 60s said. “We need to learn about the advisory,” he said. “We don’t need to be worried if we are well prepared.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]