A CONSIDERATION ABOUT THE INFORMATION GATHERING AND TRANSFER IN A LARGE-SCALE WIDE AREA DISASTER SUCH AS THE EASTERN JAPAN GREAT EARTHQUAKE

Abstract

The Eastern Japan great earthquake was an unprecedented, large-scale regional disaster. In this disaster, the earthquake of the seismic intensity 7 occurred, the massive blackout happened because of the tsunami raid, and the Tohoku region suffered the great damage. The information transfer system that was an im-portant lifeline was cut off. As a result, resident's safety confirmation and the confirmation of the damage situation are impossible, the emergency response is delayed, and damage has expanded. Moreover, prompt restoration and the contingency planning will be greatly inhibited, and a lot of problems to be solved will be given in the future. This paper describes questionnaire survey and interview reports for the administration and the fire fighting institution in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures, which had been attacked by the earthquake and huge tsunami. The questionnaires have been sent to about 130 addresses and inter-views have been done for 4 different offices of the two prefectures. The paper also demonstrates analyti-cal results of questionnaires and categorized review of all the interviews. Our questionnaires and inter-views are focused on the disaster prevention information transfer system and its behaviors during an real disaster such as the earthquake and tsunami described before.