[H-DS10] Literacy for Disaster Risk Reduction

[HDS10-P13] Responses and Challenges at the June 2023 Heavy Rain Disaster in Okazaki City, Japan

Shunsuke Yokoyama¹, *Makoto Takahashi¹ (1.Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University)

Keywords:Heavy rain disaster, Emergency response, Evacuation behabior, The June 2023 Heavy Rain

The heavy rains caused by the seasonal rain front and Typhoon No. 2 from June 1 to 3, 2023 brought record rain for June from western Japan to eastern Japan, killing eight people and destroying more than 10,000 homes nationwide. In Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, the quite heavy rain occurred on June 2, causing damage to nearly 400 homes, but the disaster remained relatively small-scale with no human casualties. In this study, we conducted interviews with the disaster prevention section and the fire department headquarter of Okazaki City, as well as community leaders in two flooded areas (Hobo-cho and Yahagi-cho) with different degrees of urbanization and history of floods, then analyzing changing situation at the emergency period. In the city, Evacuation Instructions were issued in various areas from noon on that day, with actual flooding damage occurring, and in the evening an Evacuation for the Eldery, etc. was issued due to the rising water level of the Yahagi River. However, only a few people actually evacuated. The reason that no human casualties occurred was thought to be because the rainfall itself had rapidly declined contrary to the expectations, posing some important lessons about emergency responses under unpredictable rainfall conditions. Furthermore, although the floodings and damages were different in the two areas where the survey was conducted, in common, the responses, such as evacuation of residents and protection of property, were basically based on past experience of the residents. On the other hand, evacuation information from the city government was basically dependent on external specialized organizations such as the Japan Meteorological Agency, but it did not cover the actual flooded areas in the terms of time and space, and there were problems in the locations and managements of evacuation centers. Thus, a small-scale disaster clearly show the difficulty of emergency response by local communities, including evacuation, as the situation changes moment by moment with micro-spatial differences, and lessons on disaster prevention literacy can be learned from this kind of small-scale disaster.