Kyushu Quakes, Remembering a Year On

Taken from this album 

On Thursday night we had the strongest quake we'd ever felt. Tiger slept right through it, unlike Hayate. We saw on the news the next day that it had originated in Kumamoto and seven or eight people had died. We checked in with our friends in the area, tidied up the spills and went about our business as usual. The next night a magnitude 7, the highest on the Japanese scale, struck. I was sleeping Japanese style with the kids (futons on tatami) downstairs while the husband slept upstairs with the still rattled Hayate.

The quake made an extraordinary sound, like nothing I've ever heard. The closest I can think of is a wave just as it crashes over your head, or the rushing in your ears just before you pass out. As the quake rolled on and on I grabbed the baby and braced myself in the door frame while shouting to Tiger to wake up. Some how neither the quake, my shouting, or the many dogs barking across the neighbourhood woke him. I couldn't leave the doorway with the baby in my arms so I sort of leaned out and grabbed Tiger by his toe (literally) and yanked as hard as I could to pull him to safety. He got a large friction burn from me pulling him across the tatami (tatami burns hurt much more than carpet burns, in my opinion) and then spent days telling people he'd been injured in the quake... technically true but a little misleading.

We were in Japan when 3.11 happened. You don't really get over something like that, and we've always consequently been very conscientious about disaster preparedness. However, we were just weeks away from leaving Japan and there were piles of packing and sorting everywhere. One relief was that I had passed the baton literally two weeks before to the new neighbourhood association rep. I had spent a year as the "information officer in the event of emergencies", meaning in a disaster like this I was supposed to monitor the radio, pass on evacuation information etc to the entire suburb. Why did they entrust a barely literate foreigner with this very language heavy and important role? The short answer is, as with most things, because Japan.* Other responsibilities including taking the role call to ensure everyone in the block I represented was safe, something I was also very glad not to have to do since many of our neighbours had typically Kyushu names, meaning the kanji were read in a totally different way to standard Japanese, and I never completely mastered them all.

The supermarket shelves were bare, both because of panic buying and because the highway collapse meant the trucks couldn't get through.

Saturday dawned hot and bright, but in a foreboding, over-ripe way. All around the neighbourhood the fledgling birds of spring had been shaken from their nests and their tiny bodies quickly began to rot in the hot sun. A stench hung over everything. Heavy rain and gales were forecast for later in the day, meaning landslides would inevitably follow. With foundations shaken by the quake we felt we were on the brink of an extraordinary disaster, but no one knew quite how big it would be. Tens of thousands of people evacuated. Our neighbours gathered in nervous groups, going from house to house to form consensus in the unobtrusive way of well established neighbourhoods, discussing whether we should leave to. The consensus was no, but fearfully. The neighbourhood association had generators and other emergency supplies on stand by. On TV we saw a university dorm had collapsed, trapping students inside. We watched all day, as hope slowly faded. A fourth year engineering student, a member of the music club, died. A first year student, who had left home just weeks before, died. There were amazing moments of relief, too: A baby girl rescued unharmed from a collapsed house after six agonising hours.

The magnificent castle at Kumamoto we'd visited on our "let's contribute to the local economy" holiday right after 3.11 was terribly damaged, and the highway we would take to the airport when we left had partially been swallowed by the earth.     

Source

We slept in our clothes, torches in hand, and aftershocks rocked us through the night.

Alerts... we didn't get a lot of sleep

*The longer explanation is the the positions are predetermined based on the rotating allocation and the system may not be changed, even for reasons like 'this person is literally incapable of performing the required tasks'. Because Japan.

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Bushfires in Tasmania

Evacuees on the beaches: photo by Kate Butterworth and published by the ABC

I spent yesterday periodically checking the news to see where the fires were burning in my home state, Tasmania. Bushfires are part of life in Australia, but yesterday was something else. When I was a kid if the summer temperatures got to 30 ºC it would be on the evening news. Yesterday was 41.3 degrees Celsius - the highest temperature in 120 years of record keeping.

This image belongs to the ABC and can be seen in context here

The fires have destroyed whole swathes of towns. People were evacuating to beaches and waiting to be rescued by boats, cut off from any overland roads. It's hard being away when your home is in trouble, but so far there are no confirmed reports of lives lost. The reason I'm writing about it is that this is the first disaster to hit Tassie since the rise of social media, and the way everyone has been using facebook and twitter to offer and organise help is fantastic. All day yesterday I was re-sharing offers of help, many for the animals who will suffer terribly from the fires. When horrible things happen we often see the best of our communities in the outpouring of generosity that follows, and social media means that even from the other side of the world I get to feel that love.

If you are in Tasmania please consider sharing this information to help animals in need:

Hobart Showground

The Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania is offering free accommodation for all animals effected by the fires, in their stable complex at Hobart Showground. Free camping is also available to anyone accompanying animals or from one of the effected areas. People requiring this can contact Scott Woodham on 0400574654 prior to arriving.

Kingston Animal Hospital

The Principal Vet of the Kingston Animal Hospital (Dr Chris Lee) is offering to examine and destroy any animals from the Forcett fire at no cost over this weekend. Could as many people as possible please share this so animals are not left to suffer.

North Hobart Veterinary Hospital

North Hobart Veterinary Hospital has available cat accommodation, at no charge, for people who have been displaced by the fires and cannot find suitable accommodation for their cats.

Please contact us on 0439 347 023. The hospital is currently closed but a staff member will arrange to meet you at the hospital to organise a bed for your cat.

Other:  AHVEC is able to help with injured or displaced wildlife and domestic pets. We are open all night and weekend. Please don't hesitate to call 0427 025073.
To assist people trying to call with EMERGENCIES in Forcett for injured animals the direct number to the vet is 0408 371 383. We have a vet ready with a fully equipped vehicle to attend the scene as soon as authorities allow us in.

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Disaster Training, Two Years On

Wikimedia Commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SH-60B_helicopter_flies_over_Sendai.jpg

I joined the students in the icy cold gym the other day to watch a disaster training video. I thought it would be the same old same old, but it was completely different to everything I had heard before (and actually contradicted previous advice). I think it may have been modelled on one of the schools Ryo wrote about. The video said it was Iwate prefecture but used a fictional name ("East Junior High" and "East Elementary").
The video shows a teacher instructing junior high students to protect their own lives first and run, not to check on the safety of their family and friends. The students object, saying that it’s horrible.
The teacher responds by asking them if a fire alarm went off at school and no one else evacuated, what would they do? The students reply that they would assume it was a false alarm and stay put. So, the teacher asks, what if everyone else was running? We’d think it was real and evacuated, the children reply. Exactly, he says. While everyone is milling around checking on each other and wondering what to do, valuable escape time is being wasted. By setting an example and running you are actually protecting those around you. At that point the video went into some really interesting looking research about how many people the average Japanese person needs to see evacuating before they take a threat seriously, but it started pouring with rain and I had to run out of the gym to move Rothbart under cover, so I missed the details.
In the next scene we cut to the March 11. The students are engaged in their club activities when the earthquake strikes. They immediately seize the initiative, running for the hills while shouting “tsunami, run”. The video shows that the school PA system has failed; if the students had waited for instructions from their teachers they may not have made it. The students run past a nearby elementary school, where the teachers are depicted as indecisive and dithering. The elementary kids see the JHS kids running and stream out of the school to join them. Local people see the running kids through their windows and join the evacuation despite no official order having been issued. Because the JHS kids ran immediately without hesitation or relying on others, the story concludes, they saved countless other lives.
It’s been almost two years since the great quake. This is the first time I have heard official advice to evacuate immediately and not stop to check up on others. Even in the weeks immediately following the disaster, when everyone was reviewing their emergency contingency plans and it was clear that the existing plans had massively failed, we were still encouraged to wait for broadcasts, gather at designated points, check on our neighbours and family members and travel together in groups. Students and teachers were told to assemble at school, but not where we should go for safety in the event of a tsunami that would render our elevation unsafe. This time, teachers detailed the route we will take to a nearby mountain, and we will do a practice evacuation leaving the school grounds for the first time ever in January.
Two years later, but better than never.

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Night-time Visit to the Vet (a failed attempt)

That isn't a picture of Hayate, it's a calendar I had on my desk. The bone is the star of the show

Kristin Lund blogs at http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/ about ex-pat life in Sweden with her dog, Rabbit. Incidentally, I had to double check her name but not her dog’s… sorry Kristin! There’s a lot to be jealous of in terms of doggie-life convenience. I was particularly impressed by the dog ambulance service she wrote about a few months ago. Until we moved and bought our car a few months ago we always walked to the vet. If we’d had something happen that meant the dogs couldn’t walk we could used the Doggyride I suppose, although when Hayate was refusing to walk after he got the snip we carried him in our arms. He was very heavy. He also released two days of pee down my husband’s chest. If something happened now we have the option to drive, but only if the Mr is home (I don’t have a car license). It’s a little scary, and a service like this dog ambulance would be very reassuring to know about.

The other night we did have to make an emergency vet run, and it was not a pleasant experience. Hayate suddenly because screaming, fell on his side and scratched frantically at his face while gagging. I thought he was choking on something, but when I looked into his mouth I realised he had somehow wedged a shard of bone cross-ways across the roof of his mouth, between the molars. I attempted to put my hand into his mouth but he was completely freaked out and bit me. I tried a couple of times with similar results and then tried to think of a new course of action. In the meantime his attempts to get the bone out by gagging led to him vomiting all over the lounge room. All of this naturally caused Kuri to become extremely distressed as well. She went from running around whining at random furniture to (extremely helpfully) trying to attack Hayate. We knew we needed to take him to the vet so he could be tranquilised (no one was going to get near his mouth safely otherwise), but we weren’t sure how. He was too frantic to get a collar on or pick up. We ended up being able to herd him into his crate then put him in the car in that, and arrangement he would object to at the best of times, let alone while hysterical and vomiting. We both had to go (the Mr to drive and me to speak to the vet/hold the crate together against his attempts to smash his way out). That meant leaving poor little Kuri home alone, since I couldn’t deal with her in the car as well. Hayate screamed and tried to dig/bite/smash his way out of the crate the entire 30~40 minute drive to our regular vet. The whole time we were just so happy that our vet is open until midnight. Until we got there and he was shut. Apparently the opening hours were shortened since the last time we had been there. A frantic google on my phone gave us one other vet in the vicinity who was still open… the evil vet from hell we had sworn never to go to again. We sucked it up and drove over there only to discover that although the clinic was open, there were no veterinary staff there: they were at a conference. What followed was a slightly surreal conversation with the receptionist.

“Are there any other clinics open?”

“No, we are the only late night clinic.”

“But you aren’t open.”

“We are; we just aren’t accepting patients.”

“So where can I take my dog?”

“You can try calling one of the clinics that is closed and see if anyone picks up… maybe someone is working late.”

Ten phone calls later we got through to one… who told us they were closed and hang up.

“So my dog could be dying and there is absolutely no one who cares? Are you serious? People in this city just sit and watch their pets die if it’s past 9 pm?”

“I don’t think that happens.”

“Then what do you DO?”

“Pets don’t usually have accidents at night I guess.”

At this point I was close to punching the poor girl in the face, which was very unfair because it wasn’t at all her fault and she just happened to be the only available object to vent against. We turned around a drove home, Hayate still screaming and thrashing in his crate. By the time we got home and let him out the inside of the crate was covered in damp clots of fur. We got inside to find that in addition to the vomit Kuri had expressed her agitation by peeing on every absorbent floor covering she could find. We were at a complete loss and resigned ourselves to a sleepless night and another trip to the vet as soon as they opened in the morning. Fortunately, at around 4 am Hayate worked the bone out by himself.

The whole experience left me terrified. Hayate’s situation wasn’t particularly dangerous, just upsetting. What if he had been choking? Or escaped from the house (as he has done before) and, a black dog on a dark suburban street, been hit by a car? Or eaten ant poison? He’d have died in the car as I ruined an innocent receptionist’s night by yelling at her. The next two days I asked every teacher I knew with dogs what they would have done. Most confidently gave me the names of late-night clinics (open until 8 or 9), but when I asked what they would do after those hours they were stumped. None had ever thought about it. The trouble is, when you need an emergency clinic you don’t have time to try and find one. I eventually got the number of a large clinic that has overnight staff. They aren’t open all night exactly, but staff are always there and you can phone to ask them to open for you. It’s in another city, close to an hour’s drive away, but it is better than nothing.

I’m thinking about moving to Sweden.

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Emergency Evacuation Pack

In honour of emergency-preparedness month, here is a not particularly exciting but hopefully informative look at our evacuation packs. I put a lot of thought into my evacuation pack, and I’m going to run through the details with you here. I do not, however, have any expertise or qualification to give advice about this kind of topic. I’m just showing you what I have made and why I’ve chosen to include the things I have.

These two packs cover me, my husband and our two dogs. The contents should keep us warm, dry, able to call for help and contains food and water for around five days. Each bag contains both food and water, in case we were separated.

Point 1: The Packs Themselves

Evac-pac

 It’s essential that your evacuation kit be hands-free (a backpack is best, but a satchel or messenger bag would do). A duffle-bag or anything that ties up your hands is a bad idea. In case of a flood, landslide or disrupted ground from an earthquake you need to be able to use a pole or stick to feel out your footing and avoid falling into deep water or mud sinks. If anyone with you is injured you may need to help carry them. You may need to link hands with your party members to stay together in the dark. Whatever the situation, it is best to have your hands free.

These packs were cheap (from Muji) but the straps are strong enough for the weight we wanted to pack in them. We chose white for better visibility and because we have two, we wanted to write the contents in marker on the outside of each bag to save having to search through both to find the first aid kit or rain gear.

Point 2: Super torch

The torch is the single most expensive item in the packs. It can be powered by batteries or by turning the handle and you can plug cell phones into it to charge. It is also a radio. And a siren.

Point 3: Water

Water is heavy but essential. You can survive for really quite a long time without food, but not long at all without water. In addition to plain bottled water we can give the dogs we also have enriched water with minerals and calcium. Theoretically you need about a litre per person per day, but given the food choices we have packed (see point 4) we could stretch this water to cover several days easily.

Actually, some of these cans are not ring-pull. But I was in a hurry to take the photo and didn't notice until afterwards.

Point 4: Food

Most camping food or emergency rations are dehydrated, condensed or just plain dry. In the emergency situations we are likely to face (most likely floods or earth quakes) water is going to be the scarcest resource. There’s also no point packing anything that needs heating or rehydrating unless you are also going to pack a stove and pots and pans. Our food is in two categories: instant energy and sustaining foods. For immediate energy we do have some high-calorie dry snack bars (but mainly fruit and nut chocolate), but all of our sustaining foods contain sufficient liquid to eat as they are (directly from the can since we don’t have any crockery) and also contribute to the liquid intake our bodies need. Everything we have contains protein. Importantly, all the cans are ring-pulled. No point wasting space on a can opener (or worse, needing one and not having one). The same principle applies to the dog food: we have semi-moist kibble and sachets of wet food that should provide a fair portion of their water needs.

Point 5: First Aid and Personal Care Necessities

What you want to include in your first aid kit is really personal. Probably the most important thing to include is any prescription or other medication you take regularly. I’ll list what we have in a minute, but here are some of the little things you may not have thought of:

• Alcohol hand sanitiser. There is unlikely to be water for washing hands before giving first aid or even after going to the toilet.
• Toilet paper. There are unlikely to be functioning sanitation systems.
• Chemical toilet-in-a-bag (five uses) and a trowel. Since we live in the county side digging a hole is an easy option for us.
• Sanitary pads. If you happened to be menstruating during a period of evacuation and didn’t have these… *shudder*. Originally I had tampons because they take up less space, but after thinking about lack of hand washing options they seemed like a bad idea. Also, pads can be used as wound dressings.
•  Travel toothbrushes and toothpaste kits. These are light and don’t take much space, but would make a huge difference to one’s sense of well-being.
• Caffeine pills. After my emphasis of water it may seem bizarre to pack a diuretic, but after a fair bit of discussion we decided that going through caffeine withdrawal and the associated headaches, moodiness and food cravings would be more problematic. If you smoke it would be sensible to include nicotine patches for similar reasons.

• The first aid kit proper is in a separate bag for easy finding/transportation. The bag has a hook so it should be easy to keep up out of mud while having both hands free to administer first aid. My first aid kit is the weakest part of my evacuation pack. Any suggestions on how to improve it would be gratefully received. The kit contains

1. Three-in-one anti-septic, anaesthetic and antibacterial cream
2. Pain killers
3. Bandaids, wound dressings and tape
4. Compression bandage
5. Tweezers and small scissors
6. Space blanket

Toiletry bag re-purposed into a first aid kit

Point 6: Keeping Warm and Dry

Note that we also have a head-torch each for hands-free lighting

Except for the height of summer, keeping warm during night time potentially outdoors is an important consideration. Keeping dry is a year-round consideration in Japan. Our pack contains rain ponchos, which would not keep us dry for long but hopefully long enough to find or make shelter. They are brightly coloured for visibility. We have microfiber towels because they are light weight and dry almost instantly. We have a tarpaulin and rope with which we could make a (very rough)  shelter big enough for the four of us in the event that we could not find our way to an evacuation shelter or if we decided to camp outside a shelter in order to stay with the dogs. We may exchange the tarp for an actual (compact) tent, we’re still thinking about it. We also have a package of thick socks and thermal tops, as well as gardening gloves for dealing with broken glass, collapsed trees and the like.

Thermal underwear, socks and gloves

Point 7: Knowing What to Do

Our pack contains our emergency evacuation guide book, map with evacuation shelters marked and a first aid instruction manual. It is recommended to keep important documents such as passports in the evacuation guide but we don’t want to be dipping into the packs whenever we need them, so we just keep photocopies of our documents.

It sounds like a lot, but all this stuff fits easily into two packs light enough for us to carry for long distances. If we were caught in a disaster and had to evacuate, I think we have covered every eventuality we could reasonable prepare for. We could survive fairly comfortably with both dogs for several days and over a week if we rationed sparsely. The bags are stored in their own cupboard which is located on the way out of the house, and they are immediately grab-able. There’s no point making a kit and putting it on top of a bookcase you can’t reach without a step ladder or buried at the back of a full closet.

Finally, if you want a cute pictorial representation of natural disasters check out kawaii catastrophe.

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