Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / 'Nothing really prepares you' Survivor recounts Japan earthquake

Transcript

'Nothing really prepares you' Survivor recounts Japan earthquake · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Turning now to Japan, where it is now just after
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: nine am in the morning, the rising sun providing much
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: needed light to as rescue crews are searching for survivors
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: that are trapped beneath the rebel of what was once
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a shopping newsroom. Here you can see crews working on
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: a downed building complex. A powerful earthquake struck the country's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: southern island of Kiyushu, knocked out power to thousands of homes,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: damaged roads and bridges, and caused that shopping mall to collapse.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Nearly three hundred thousand people were told to flee to
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: emergency shelters, while hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: assist with rescue efforts. And my next guest describes the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: earthquake sounding like the earth was ripping itself apart. Andrew
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Mitchell joins me now. He has been living in Kumamoto
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: since twenty fourteen and is the founder of the Kumamoto
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Earthquake Experience Project and to promote disaster risk awareness. Andrew,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: it is great to have you on the show. This
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: is your second time experiencing an earthquake in Kumamoto. Is
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: that right? How are you doing.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, thank you for taking the time
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: to speak to me today, and that's correct. Unfortunately, Kuma
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Motto has suffered suffered two major earthquakes in twenty sixteen
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: in April twenty sixteen, and one of the reasons I started,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: as you mentioned, the Kumoto Earthquake Experience Project, is to
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: share the awareness of what happened to us in twenty
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: sixteen so people can better prepare. But I never, in
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: my darkest, wildest thoughts thoughts that it will be us
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: again suffering such a major earthquake only ten years after
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: we had the earthquakes in twenty sixteen.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, So, as you said, you've gone through this before.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Does anything ever truly prepare you for experiencing a natural
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: disaster like this? I mean, you've obviously given that question
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: some thought.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: I think the best you can do. So when the
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: earthquake happened here, I had the adrenaline rush, but I
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: didn't feel fear so much because I've spent I've had
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the experience. I've spent ten years preparing, but nothing really
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: prepares you. It's you're leading your daily life and then
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: just like that, suddenly there's a major disaster happening around you.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: So for myself, I suppose I was lucky. I was prepared,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: both from my previouss experience and the work I've done
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: with the earthquake experience projects. But many international students, many
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: newcomers to Japan, young Japanese children as well, unfortunately found
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: it very terrifying.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: So talk to me about how you had prepared for this.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, again, you've dedicated yourself to do this kind
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of organization to try and spread What were you doing
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and how did it benefit you?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: So on a personal level, for example, in my apartment,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: I make sure there's no heavy objects on high your shelves.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I'm most sure things are as close to the ground
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: as possible. In the room I was in when the
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: earthquake hit, there was nothing anywhere near me by design,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: by the way I put my apartment things in my
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: apartment together that could have fallen on my head. So
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: whilst my main worry was just how bad is this
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: going to be? Could it potentially bring the building down?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: But even with that thought, I'm well aware of how
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: stringent Japanese infrastructure standards are. So I just waited for
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: the shaking to stop, which is the best thing to
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: do in Japan, and once it's hard, I checked my apartment, like,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: checked the smell for gas thankful evers, nothing like that.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Just a few broken cups, a few broken plates, checks
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: for any crucks, and then checks my apartment building for
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: any visible damage thankful ebos. Nothing. And it's something I've
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: recommended to others to do for years, Like just very
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: basic disaster precautions in the way you put your apartment together,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: protecting your head, not escaping during the shaking, but after
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: it stopped. Making sure if there's any gas smell, you
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: turn the gas off. Things like that, just basic things
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: that could save your life well when a disaster strikes.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Andrew, so you talk about the question going through
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: your head, you know, just how bad might this be?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: It's the day, it's sort of the morning after it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: It's often in these these hours as daylight hits, so
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: we start to have a sense of how bad it
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: might be. What's your sense of things?
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: So I want to make it clear in Kumamoto City
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: where I live, things really aren't so bad. There was
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: a lot of shaking, but there doesn't seem to be
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: really have been too much damage. Yeah, I'm speaking to
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: you now over Wi Fi. We have electricity, we have water,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: we have gas here and there's been no outages. The
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: further sorry, the closer you get to the epicenter, So
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the further self you come from Kumwato City, the more
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: damage there is. As you mentioned before, the Eon mole
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: there had a they think maybe a gas explosion, and
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: I think people are still trapped there. There's I believe
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: still families traps in buildings closer to the epicenter. So
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: the closer you get to the epicenter, there's a lot
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: more damage. And as you said, now that the morning
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: light has come up, it makes things a lot easier
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: for emergency responders, and I hope and pray that they
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: can continue to do their fantastic efforts in helping people
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: who are in much greater need than people like myself.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: It is early hours in this, but you do have
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: experience having gone through this before. Can you talk about
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: how the region rebuilds, what you think needs to happen,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and do you double down on the efforts that you've
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: been making to try and spread the word.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: So I'll answer the second part first, and yes, I'm
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: going to double triple down on what have I been doing.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: It's so important that people are aware, not only foreign
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: residents who are perhaps recently moved to Kumamoto, Japan, but
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: also Japanese as well. It's very easy to think earthquakes
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: will happen somewhere else and it won't affect me, and
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: people don't prepare. And if you don't prepare, you know
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you can be not only terrified, but also be injured,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: if not killed. So I'm going to do all down
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: on my efforts going forward spreading awareness of this. In
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: terms of where does Kumamoto go from here, the only
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: thing I'm into, well, the only thing I care about
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: now is just helping most people who are still trapped
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: and making sure people don't continue to die from this
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: point Sokumoto, the south of Japan's extremely hot and humid. Yesterday,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: I think it was a high of thirty seven thirty
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: eight with very high humidity. So the fear is not
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: just getting people out of buildings, but especially vulnerable people,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: older people and young children, getting them into air conditioned
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: places where you know they're not going to suffer from
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: heat stroke. So those are the main things for me,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: but I think should be focused on at the moment
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: and of course the Japanese Self Defense Forces and other
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: emergency responders are doing that. In terms of later on,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: it's getting things food, water, things of comfort to people
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: in evacuation shelters, and depending on how many homes we've lost,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: building temporary accommodation whilst we look into rebuilding homes in
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: the same as we did in twenty sixteen.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Andrew Mitchell, Kumamoto resident and the founder of the Kumamado
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Earthquake Experience Projects. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Thank
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you very much.