2005. Big cities integrated with diverse social infrastructures are thus found more vulnerable to the magnified effects of natural disasters than smaller cities.

While Hurricane Sandy has brought devastating damages, responses taken by a U.S. hurricane preparedness program are said to have been greatly instrumental in mitigating its effects. U.S. disaster preparedness plans call upon the organizations concerned with disaster preparedness to act in a preprogrammed time-series sequence of events, called “timeline,” to respond to natural disasters when they occur, within their respective preassigned shares of responsibility. Disaster preparedness coordinators and firefighters are also supposed to have taken shelter safely by the time of disaster occurrence (“zero hour”).

Pursuant to this timeline, New York City Subway gave a prior notification to passengers one day before the scheduled date of landing of Hurricane Sandy and managed to resume train services in certain sections in two days at the shortest, despite some damages from flooding. In the State of New Jersey, the Governor called upon the residents to take shelter 36 hours before the landing of the

Figure 1-2-27 Timeline (State of New Jersey)

Decision	Time
Level 2 state, and prepare for Levels 3 and 4	120
Plan and prepare for evacuation centers	96
Plan and prepare for evacuation	96
Declare a state of emergency	72
Level 3 state	72
Local governments and state prepare emergency centers	48
Plan and prepare traffic regulations	48
Order evacuation	36
Open evacuation centers	36
Begin traffic regulations	36
Public transport services shut down	12
Level 4 state	24
Order on-the-spot evacuation	12
End traffic regulations	3
Supporters take shelter	0

*The zero hour is the time at which strong winds arrive as a result of a hurricane landing on the State of New Jersey.

*Each time indicated is a time tracing back from the 0 hour.

(Reference) Joint Investigation Team (2013) formed by the MLIT and academic associations relating to disaster preparedness “Field Report on a Survey of Hurricane Sandy in the U.S.”

hurricane.

Such “anticipatory responses” may well have helped mitigate the impact of the hurricane as there was a time lag between its landing and the ensuing development of its damages.

Japan’s metropolitan regions have not experienced storm-surge damages for nearly 60 years since the Ise Bay Typhoon in 1959. Because Japan’s three major metropolitan areas are populated by a huge number of residents each, with the so-called “zero-meter regions” below seal level and huge subterranean spaces underneath, once a massive natural disaster of similar dimensions hits them, it could claim numerous human lives, threatening a tremendous impact on the nation’s economic activities as a whole. Lessons learned from this disaster should be factored into the future formulation of our approaches to disaster preparedness and actions.

## (Reference)

Joint Investigation Team (2013) formed by the MLIT and academic associations relating to disaster preparedness “Field Report on a Survey of Hurricane Sandy in the U.S.”

Figure 1-2-28 Measures Taken by the Railway Operator to Prevent Flooding during Hurricane Sandy

(Note) Left: sandbags used to cut off water; middle: motor removed at a point; right: ticket-vending machines guarded to cut off water

(Reference) Joint Investigation Team (2013) formed by the MLIT and academic associations relating to disaster preparedness "Field Report on a Survey of Hurricane Sandy in the U.S."