With three weeks having passed since a major earthquake hit Kumamoto Prefecture on July 28, authorities are shifting their focus toward mitigating deaths from prolonged displacement due to extended stays in?evacuation shelters.
Initial response during the one-month period after a disaster is essential, experts say.
Following two major quakes in Kumamoto in 2016, the number of evacuees topped 180,000 at one point. More than 200 people died from physical and mental stress caused by the prolonged displacement. Such cases are classified as disaster-related deaths.
According to the Kumamoto Prefectural Government¡¯s data as of March 2021, 124 ¡ª or 56% ¡ª of the disaster-related deaths occurred within a month after the quakes.
Several disaster-related deaths were also reported after the January 2024 earthquake in the Noto Peninsula area. The number of such deaths that occurred within a month of the quake amounted to 147, according to data released by the Ishikawa Prefectural Government in December last year.
Shinichi Egawa, a professor of disaster medicine at Tohoku University¡¯s International Research Institute of Disaster Science, said, ¡°It is important to keep a close track of each of the evacuees.¡±
¡°Authorities and healthcare workers must share information on evacuees ¡ª including those who continue to live in their homes and those staying in their vehicles ¡ª and on whether they are older, require nursing care or have been taking medication, and provide them with access to appropriate support,¡± Egawa said.
Other measures that help prevent?disaster-related deaths include talking to older people who tend to feel?isolated following a disaster and encouraging them to brush their teeth regularly to ward off pneumonia, he said.
Egawa said long-term support is also needed, as disaster-related deaths continued to be reported even after a month following the 2016 Kumamoto quakes and the 2024 Noto Peninsula quake.
¡°If medical and nursing care institutions resume operations as quickly as possible and evacuees can return to their normal life, their stress will be reduced, leading to a mitigation of disaster-related deaths,¡± he said.
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