Emergency Alert! - Preparing for the next major earthquake and tsunami in Tokushima

Recently, a major earthquake has struck in Turkey and Syria. It’s heartbreaking to hear that the death toll will reportedly continue to rise to 30,000 people, which exceeds the amount of people from the Great East Japan Earthquake/Tsunami. Sound House’s parent company, House Holdings, has donated 10 million yen to the Japanese Red Cross Society for emergency relief funds. There is only so much we can do for this disaster that has happened on distant foreign soil. We only hope that our donation will help to save as many people as possible.

I have been saying that a big earthquake would hit the Kanto area before the Nankai megathrust earthquakes, but now I retract my statement. The Nankai megathrust earthquakes will not only be likely to come first, but I feel that it will come even sooner than what was originally predicted. I wonder if people even heard the announcement about this from the Cabinet Office. The maximum magnitude of the Nankai megathrust earthquakes is projected to be up to a 9 in magnitude. After the earthquake, the tsunami will reach Kaiyo Town in Tokushima Prefecture in 6 minutes, Anan City in 15 minutes, and Komatsushima City in 36 minutes. It has been said that the tsunami height has the potential to reach as high as 5 meters in Komatsushima City, but this has also been revised: it’s now projected to be 21 meters in Kaiyo Town where Takegashima is located, 16 meters in Anan City, and 6 meters in Komatsushima City. It is clear that we need to prepare for the worst-case mega tsunami disaster operations in our Tokushima office and warehouse.

You can never be too prepared. The most important thing we can do in advance is that everyone learns how to evacuate. The government estimates a worst-case scenario of 31,000 deaths in Tokushima Prefecture. Our staff and their family members must not be among them. Suppose, for example, a major earthquake strikes while our staff members are working in the office. It is important to keep a few ironclad rules in mind:

• Immediately make a decision to get out of the office quickly to avoid being trapped under merchandise or office equipment. Staff in the warehouse should first exit the nearest door in the building. Those who are not close to the exit should not panic and drop to the floor at the foot of large bolted shelving units. If employees try to find shelter here, they may be hit by objects falling from the rack. Note in advance that the tremors from this violently strong magnitude earthquake won’t give you enough time to look up and then judge what to do in the moment.
• Also, employees should not even consider driving home from work because geographically, the roads in Komatsushima will be blocked and become liquefied, so they will never be able to pass through. Even if employees force themselves to go home, they will be swept away by the tsunami before they can even reach home.
• All staff members in our Tokushima office and warehouse should climb up the stairs to the evacuation terrace of our warehouse building since there is a 10-meter-high shelter that was built for a worst-case 10-meter tsunami in Komatsushima. Workers in Komatsushima need to climb up a narrow ladder, so everyone must help each other. Once they reach the top of the building, they will be safe; The walls of our warehouse building are so thin that when the tsunami hits, the walls will be smashed out only with its frames left, so the building will not collapse. In addition to the fact that there are no houses around, another advantage is that there are a lot of tetrapods right next to the building to block various kinds of objects that could damage the building.
• Helmets and life-saving equipment have been prepared in the shelter; Now we have to get more of these items as soon as possible because the number of employees has increased over the past eight years. The reason for this is that if the tsunami is much taller than the predicted 10 meters, it is crucial to protect the head from external impacts and stay afloat above the water to survive. Unquestionably, I recommend wearing a helmet and life jacket until the water completely recedes.
• Finally, the most frightening thing about a tsunami is its receding tide. The speed of the receding tide is much faster than the onrushing tsunami. Therefore, never go near the seawater. Once you are swallowed by the receding water, you won’t be able to survive.

I believe you can now understand how scary the tsunami is and how you can prepare for it. Another thing we must do is to consider how people can evacuate from their homes and schools. We don’t have much time to consider this issue, so it is important to urgently discuss this anyway. As our staff members who commute from Anan City know, many areas there are under 3 meters above sea level and they are located in the flat lands. In addition to the flat lands, the tsunami is predicted to reach there quickly. Therefore, they will just have to climb up to one of the few mountains in the west or the upper floors of the building. Measures must be urgently taken beforehand.

Fortunately, our headquarters in Narita are in Shinsen, one of the areas with the highest elevation in the city. Our headquarters is a large 6-story building, boasting the strongest structural design built at 32 meters above sea level. The 6th floor of the building is over 60 meters above sea level, so even if the Kanto area sinks 50 meters, everyone on the 6th floor will still be safe. Furthermore, our office building in Narita is structurally designed to withstand a major unforeseen 9 magnitude earthquake. I can guarantee that no building in Narita is structurally safer than ours. We also have no problems in our Onagawa branch for the next several hundred years. We have had many small earthquakes recently, but we no longer have to worry about being hit by a huge earthquake.

Therefore, my main concern is Tokushima because this place will be hit by a major earthquake at some point. Narita and Tokyo are also doomed to suffer earthquake disasters. I can’t tell which will come first, but there is not a moment to waste. Let’s take action and prepare now. Everyone must be prepared and be mentally strong enough to stick to our disaster plan in the event of an earthquake, whenever and however it happens. This plan will save everyone’s lives.

Finally, disaster preparation is also the reason why it is imperative to expand our Onagawa business now. The time will eventually come when our operation in Tokushima will stop. If something happens, what will we do with the 2,000 orders that are supposed to be shipped out from Tokushima? Onagawa will have to take over all of them. That is why we have the land and the building in Onagawa, which is almost the same size as our headquarters in Narita. This could be a godsend for us. We have just started working on this quickly because there is no way not to take advantage of what we do have.

The time will come someday when Tokyo will also sink into the sea. However, Mejiro, where our Tokyo office is located, is the territory of the main Tokugawa family and boasts one of the highest elevations in Tokyo at 30 meters above sea level. There are also many tall buildings around, and rooms that we have for our company housing are on the 10th floor of a nearby apartment, so even if the Kanto area were to sink 50 meters, our staff members at the Tokyo branch will still have a place to go. Our headquarters in Narita is also the safest city in Chiba Prefecture. Onagawa is even safer against disasters, so from now on, we will give more importance to Onagawa. Someday, Onagawa may be a place where we all will have to take shelter.