Very interesting. The bit I don't understand about the 30,000 people made homeless by the Noto earthquake is why it was necessary for any of them in winter to spend more than a few hours in evacuation facilities that lacked power, heat and food?
Even if all the roads were completely impassable, surely it should be possible to evacuate people by helicopters, buses or other means to the safety and comfort of hotels/ryokans outside the quake zone? That's about 500-600 Chinook missions. The Japanese military have dozens of Chinooks and US forces in Japan doubtless have dozens more. There are 1.76 million rooms in hotels and ryokans across Japan. And, if certain facilities are designated as evacuation centers, why are they not stocked with survival basics?
As an ignorant outsider looking in through "Japan Today" and NHK, it looks as though Japan's support for the survivors has been well below optimal and lives have been lost, which is both surprising and lamentable. I would have expected Japan's response to natural disasters to be both slick and well rehearsed; but apparently not: even 7-10 days after the quake, thousands were reportedly still without power, heat and food:
Very interesting. The bit I don't understand about the 30,000 people made homeless by the Noto earthquake is why it was necessary for any of them in winter to spend more than a few hours in evacuation facilities that lacked power, heat and food?
Even if all the roads were completely impassable, surely it should be possible to evacuate people by helicopters, buses or other means to the safety and comfort of hotels/ryokans outside the quake zone? That's about 500-600 Chinook missions. The Japanese military have dozens of Chinooks and US forces in Japan doubtless have dozens more. There are 1.76 million rooms in hotels and ryokans across Japan. And, if certain facilities are designated as evacuation centers, why are they not stocked with survival basics?
As an ignorant outsider looking in through "Japan Today" and NHK, it looks as though Japan's support for the survivors has been well below optimal and lives have been lost, which is both surprising and lamentable. I would have expected Japan's response to natural disasters to be both slick and well rehearsed; but apparently not: even 7-10 days after the quake, thousands were reportedly still without power, heat and food:
"Over 25,000 people remained in nearly 400 evacuation centers in Ishikawa Prefecture as of Wednesday afternoon" ten days after the quake (https://japantoday.com/category/national/gov't-to-aid-central-japan-quake-recovery-with-more-subsidies)
Puzzling. And why would anyone see a cardboard box as a suitable solution?!