Landslide Museum Exec Urges Learning How to Act in Disasters

   Hiroshima, Aug. 20 (Jiji Press)--The deputy head of a museum for handing down lessons from massive lethal landslides that happened in the city of Hiroshima, western Japan, a decade ago has urged people to learn how to act in times of disasters.
   Hideharu Hatahori, 67, of the Hiroshima City Torrential Rain Disaster Memorial Center, made the call, as Tuesday marks 10 years since the landslides occurred in the small hours of Aug. 20, 2014, following heavy rainfall. The disaster left 77 people dead, including three who died due to indirect causes.
   In the city's Asaminami Ward, which suffered particularly heavy damage, 68 people died of direct causes, such as being swallowed up by landslides, and 267 residential buildings were destroyed or partially damaged.
   Recounting the disaster, Hatahori, who had been involved in volunteer work for young people, said that he received a message at the time from his family that their home in the ward was damaged. After telling his family to stay in the house, he returned home and found that the roof had fallen off and soil had flown into the house. Thankfully, his family was unharmed.
   "I thought that (my family) would be safer inside the house," he said. "I did not think at all about (having them) evacuate."

(2024/08/20-13:55)

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