Disaster Prevention Guide
For Foreign Residents

This guidebook compiles how to protect yourself from disasters and what to do in such cases forforeign residents in Itabashi City. This guidebook is intended to provide knowledge and to prepare you
and your loved ones for potential disasters.

Itabashi Culture and International Exchange Foundation
In Cooperation with ICIEF Foreign Language Service Volunteers(Revised in July, 2018)

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Earthquake

Let’s learn about earthquakes
Japan is known as a country with frequent earthquakes.

Let’s learn about earthquakes.

Magnitude and seismic intensityMagnitude
Magnitude indicates the amount of energy of the earthquake. Seismic Intensity (Shindo inJapanese) is small if the focus of an earthquake is far or deep, while an earthquake of smaller
magnitude may create higher seismic intensity if the focus is nearby or shallow.
Seismic intensity
Seismic intensity indicates the strength of tremors caused by the earthquake. You could be indanger in case of an earthquake of Shindo 5 or more.
Shindo 4

People while walking will feel the tremors. Tableware in the cupboard will clatter.

Shindo 5-

People will get frightened and will try to protect themselves. Tableware and books
may fall from the shelves.

Shindo 5+

People will be extremely frightened. Difficult to walk without holding on tosomething. Difficult to drive a car. TV monitor may fall from the stand.

Shindo 6-

Difficult to stand up. Doors may be blocked and may not open. Heavy furniture
may move and fall down. Windowpanes may be broken.

Shindo 6+

Crawling is the only way to move around. Buildings may be at risk of falling down.
Most of the heavy furniture will move and fall over. Most brick walls will fall down.

Shindo 7

You will be unable to move yourself. Most furniture will move, fall over and may goflying. Landslides may occur around slopes.

Earthquake early warning
Before a tremor of strong earthquake occurs, you may hear alarms from TV, radios and cellular
phones.
Disasters caused by large earthquakes
Falling objects
In the house, furniture and lighting fixtures may fall down and windowpanes may be broken. In theworst case, the house itself (mostly ground floor) may collapse.
Outdoors, signboards, roof tiles and windowpanes will fall to the ground. Vending machines will also
fall down.
FireFire often occurs after earthquakes. Due to the traffic congestion caused by the earthquake,firefighting is likely to be delayed. Hence, in an area crowded with wooden houses, the fire may
spread over large areas.
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Tsunami (huge tidal wave caused by earthquake)
Tsunami will probably not reach Itabashi City. However, if you are in an area adjacent to the sea orin a low altitude area, you might be hit by tsunami. It is advisable to evacuate to a higher altitude or
higher floor of a tall building.
Landslide
Houses at the bottom of slopes could be affected by landslides.
Liquefaction
Liquefaction is a phenomenon wherein soil with high water content is liquidized by the tremor of theearthquake. When liquefaction happens, water spouts from the ground surface and sometimes
houses become slanted due to the depressions in the ground.
Difficulties after large earthquakes
Lack of information
It will be difficult to make phone calls and confirm safety of your family and friends. Also, you will not
be able to share information with them.
Power outage
You will not be able to charge cellular phones.
Water outage
Due to damages in the water pipeline system, water outage may continue for a relatively long time.
You will not be able to flush toilets.
Gas outage
Due to damages in the gas pipeline system, gas outage may continue for a long time.
Food shortage
As the delivery system of supermarkets and convenience stores will be heavily affected, it will bevery difficult to buy food and daily necessities.
Transportation
Trains, subways and buses may not be available or less frequent in operation. You may not be able
to drive cars due to gasoline shortage.
The roads inside the number 7 loop line will be closed to cars.
To protect yourself and your family
Falling objects
Move away from the furniture, television, and shelves.
with futons if you are in bed.
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Go under a table or desk. Cover yourself

Escape route
Secure an exit by opening a door.
Fire prevention
Do not rush to extinguish the gas flame because the gas supply will automatically stop in case of anearthquake with seismic intensity 5 or more.
Check both inside and outside of your home on a regular basis to see if there are any potential fallingobjects.
Check list for safety measures□ Closets and book shelves are fastened to the wall
to prevent from falling over.
□ Doors of cupboard are fastened to prevent dishes
from shooting out.
□ Keep free the pathway and area around the doors.
□ Place TV sets on a low stand and prevent themfrom falling by using fastening tools.
□ Stick anti-scattering film on windowpanes.

L-shaped fixture
・If your house is rented, drilling
holes in the wall may not be advisable.

Examples of useful tools

Place some material under the furniture,so that it will lean against the wall.

Cardboard boxEvacuation
If there is no burning or collapse of buildings, you do not need to rush outside. Evacuation is thelast refuge. However, in case of the following dangerous occasions, evacuate immediately.
Decisive cases for evacuation
When an evacuation advice or notice is announced by an emergency broadcast system.
When the fire is spreading out to large areas.
If your house has become unsuitable for living.
Refuge area
Check your nearest refuge area, such as a park, with your family or friends beforehand. In caseyour home is too damaged to live in, go to a shelter (elementary and junior high schools in ItabashiCity).
Cars
Do not use cars for evacuation as it will cause traffic congestion.
When you evacuate,□ Flip the breakers for the electricity supply to off (to prevent fire caused by electricity leakage)□ Close the master valve of the gas supply (to prevent fire caused by gas leakage)
3２Flood

Concentrated downpour or localized torrential rainfall occurs these days. Therefore, you need toprepare for downpour and heavy rain caused by a typhoon.

If a flood occurs
Do not go to rivers nor try to cross them.
Be aware of landslides.
Be ready to evacuate at any time.
Keep away from manholes because water may spray out.
When streets are covered with water, do not walk on the road as some manholes may have losttheir covers.

Itabashi Flood Hazard Map
In heavy rains, water may flood roads near river. Water may flood houses.
Caution!
You can see the Hazard Map on Itabashi City homepage.
http://www.city.itabashi.tokyo.jp/c_kurashi/009/009967.html

4３FireWhen a fire breaks out
If you discover a fire, inform the neighborhood by shouting “Kaji”or “Fire”.
If you cannot shout, inform it by an emergency alarm or beating something that makes a loud noise.
Even if the fire is small scale, inform the fire brigade by dialing 119.
If the fire is spreading horizontally, the fire can be extinguished. Extinguish the fire using fire
extinguishers, water or by placing cushions over the fire.
If the flame reaches the ceiling, evacuate immediately. Close doors and windows in order to preventthe spread of fire.
Check list for preventing fire□

Do not place items which can be easily burned near the house(arson prevention).

□ Lock the garage and storehouse.(arson prevention).
□ Garbage should be taken out to the proper place in the morning of the specified
date (arson prevention)□ Do not leave the kitchen when you are cooking deep fried food. If you have toleave, put out the flame.
□ Do not place items that could catch fire easily near the cooking range.
□ Do not smoke in bed.
□□□□□□□□□□□Do not leave lit cigarette on the ashtray.
Fill the ashtray with water after smoking.
Do not throw cigarette butts in the garbage can.
Do not leave matches and lighters within reach of children.
Teach children about the dangers of the fire.
Do not dry laundry on the heater.
Do not place items that could catch fire easily near the heater.
Extinguish the oil heater before filling oil.
Do not make a bonfire outdoors.
Do not connect too many electrical appliances to a single socket.
Replace damaged wall sockets and cords as soon as possible.

5４Information

Items to carry during evacuation
Valuables (residence card), medical supplies, clothes (cotton gloves for protection), daily necessities(a portable radio, batteries for radio and flashlights, battery charger for cellular phones)

Stockpile for emergency
Food (for at least 3 days)、 water (3 liters per day.), items needed for food (can opener, bottle opener,paper cups, paper plates, etc.), fuel (portable gas range, gas cartridges, lighter, matches, etc.)

Information gathering
Radio: Multi-language news will be broadcast by Inter FM (89.7MHz)(At the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, it was broadcast in English, Chinese,Korean, Tagalog, Spanish, and Portuguese)
Television and Internet
Telephone message services provided by telephone companies
When disasters occur, many phone calls will come from all over Japan. Hence, it will be very difficult
for telephone calls to get through. At the time of a disaster, message services will be provided by NTT
and cellular phone companies, and you can record your voice message for your relatives and friend,
so that they can hear your message by ringing your telephone number. Since the process of recording
a message differs for each telephone provider, please check with your telephone provider beforehand.
6Resetting the gas meter
When an earthquake of Shindo 5 or above occurs, gas meters will automatically stop supplying gas.
In flats or apartment houses, gas meters are usually located near the entrance or in a gas meter box
under the corridor. Sometimes meters are installed on the outer wall of the building. In case ofhouses, meters are usually placed outside, near the entrance.
Restarting the gas meter to resume gas supply;※If you smell gas, do not reset the gas meter and report to gas company instead.
１ Shut off the valve of all gas equipment (includingequipment located outdoors, except for the gas metervalve).

Red light

Reset button

２ Remove the cap of the reset button (some gas
meters may not have caps).
３ Press the reset button down and release your hand.
Then, replace the cap cover.
４ After about 3 minutes, a flashing red light will turnoff and the gas supply will resume.
If the red light does not turn off after 3 minutes, recheck
whether or not all valves of gas equipment are shut off.
If the flashing red light is still on, report to the gascompany.

Let’s attend disaster training exercises.
Itabashi Ward provides training drills from time to time to experience fire fighting and first aid activities.
It is important to remain calm when a disaster occurs. Therefore, please attend the training exercises ifpossible.

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