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The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes

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thesouth

Response of Mashiki Town Government
General Affairs Division, Mashiki town government, Kumamoto

1Introduction

We very much appreciate the support,
which started immediately after theKumamoto Earthquakes this April, fromthe Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF),
the fire service, the police, the nationalgovernment
andtheprefecturalgovernment, as well as municipalities,groups and organizations, and many
people from all over the country. Herewe will explain the response of Mashiki
town government to the 2016 Kumamoto
Earthquakes.

2Damage situation from theKumamoto Earthquakes in
Mashiki Town

In the town which registered a seismic
intensity of 7 twice, once during theforeshock on the night of April 14 andagain during the main shock in the earlyhours of April 16, more than 20 people
lost their precious lives. Housing
damage was also extensive all over thetown with a total of 3,343 fully-destroyedhouses, 3,350 half-destroyed houses,
and 4,382 partially-damaged houses asof September 27. There was a peak of16,050
evacuees
includingstay-in-car-victims the morning after themain shock.

Damage from the Kumamoto Earthquakes inMashiki Town

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Response of Mashiki town
government to the Kumamoto
Earthquakes(1) Response just after the Earthquakes
After the foreshock on April 14, many
staff members came running to the town
office, but the office was in disarray anda power outage made it impossible touse power sources or communications
equipment. Therefore, we carried ourwhiteboards, tables, projectors, etc. out
to the parking area on the south side of
the town office building to set up theon-site response headquarters. We also
set up the local disaster response
headquarters in the municipal health andwelfare center where power sources andcommunicationequipment
wereavailable. The main responses of thetown government just after theEarthquakes were as follows: Gathering information on damage,etc.
 Calls for service from the JSDF via
Kumamoto prefectural government
 Cooperation and coordination with theJSDF, the fire service and the policeFrom Calls for dispatch of mobile power
supply vehicles
 Setting up and staffing evacuation
centers Aid requests for blankets, water andfood, and their distribution
 Requesting the police to regulate
traffic
 Requesting the volunteer fire corps toclose roads showing subsidence, etc.
After the main shock, the town officebuilding faced a growing risk of collapse
and became off limits. Therefore, theusual town office functions weresuspended, and those other than staff incharge of restoring roads or lifeline
utilities including water and sewage
works could do nothing but work for thedisaster response headquarters oroperate the evacuation centers.
(2) Setting up project teams
Around 10 days after the earthquakes,
the town started to shift from a chaotic
period to the preparation phase forrecovery and reconstruction.
We set up the following four project
teams on April 25 to respond to theurgent problems we were facing.
1) The “Evacuation Center Measures
Team” to improve the environment in
the evacuation centers, and provide
medical and welfare support
2) The “Housing Support Team” toprovide housing support such as theselection of construction sites for
emergency
temporary
housing,
privaterentalhousing-turned-temporary
housing
units, and emergency repairs
3) The “Disaster Certification Team” toconduct surveys to certify damaged
houses and issue disaster certificatesthenorth, fromthesouth4) The“TownOffice
Function
Reconstruction Team” to resume thetown office’s usual work in thesituation where the governmentbuilding was affected and unusable
These four project teams took theinitiative to address the urgent problems
we were facing in cooperation withbackup officials from the national
government, Kumamoto prefectural
government and other municipalities.

4Recovery and reconstruction
fromtheKumamoto
Earthquakes(1) Formulation of the Mashiki Townbasic policy for reconstruction fromthe Earthquakes
On July 6, the Mashiki Town basic policy
for reconstruction from the Earthquakes
was formulated to demonstrate the basic
attitude and direction toward futurecommunity development, aiming forreconstruction from the Kumamoto
Earthquakes. Based on this basic policy,
the Mashiki Town reconstruction plan will
be formulated before the end of the year
as a comprehensive plan toward
reconstruction.
(2) Developmentof
temporary housing

emergency

Construction of emergency temporary
housing started on May 6 and people
started moving in on June 14. Eventually
1,556 housing units in 17 temporary
housing complexes will be built andeveryone will have moved in by
mid-October.

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Development of emergency temporary housing(3) Publicly-funded dismantling andclearance of collapsed houses, etc.
Thetown
government
starteddismantling and clearing those houses
assessedashalf-destroyedorfully-destroyed and holding disastercertificates on July 7. We expect to clear
roughly 3,000 houses and plan tocomplete the process by March 2018.

Dismantling and clearance of a collapsed housethenorth, fromthesouthConclusion

Five months have passed since theKumamoto Earthquakes, and ourdisaster response measures havemostly been completed. We have begun
our work toward reconstruction gradually.
We would like to fully examine ourresponses
totheKumamoto
Earthquakes and use these examination
results to review the local disastermanagement plan and for resilient
community development.