The key to administer an evacuation shelter is “community
strength”
I was the person in charge of
public administration at an evacuation shelter based at local primary school. The
evacuees and all the staff including me did not know how to manage the
situation. However, I had an advantage in establishing good relationships with the
evacuees because I had graduated from that primary school and also I was
well-integrated into this community for many years as a boys’ baseball team coach.
Since everything was lacking
at the beginning, sometimes we heard people yelling at each other. But thanks
to the strong unity that is characteristic of the Shichigahama people, community-based
management groups could be organized from an early stage. Based on these
groups, the evacuees organized themselves voluntarily to manage things like
meals, publicity, supplies and environment. That helped me to be aware of the importance
of mutual understanding and support in case of disaster.
Also, when we started to
have more time, we played music at dinner time, which was received favorably by
the evacuees, or we practiced traditional Japanese “radio exercises” to warm-up
every morning, which was the school principal’s idea. In these ways, we tried
to make all kinds of efforts to be positive as much as possible even if we were
facing a harsh reality.
I realized that the
indispensable thing to overcome the disaster was the “community strength”.
Shoji Katsuya (53 years old)
Industry Division, Shichigahama town
Address at the time of disaster: Tooyama
Area
Present Address: Same as above