Evacuation Drill Held In Ne Japan On World Tsunami Awareness Day
About 1,000 residents of a coastal town in northeastern Japan took part in an evacuation drill on Saturday, which is designated as World Tsunami Awareness Day.
Otsuchi Town in Iwate Prefecture was hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
The drill, organized by town officials, was based on a scenario that an earthquake registered at upper 6 on the Japanese seismic scale of zero to 7 had occurred around 7:30 a.m., triggering a major tsunami warning.
As soon as the warning was broadcast on a radio system, children who were on their way to school, ran to a designated evacuation place.
The leader of a local volunteer group used a vehicle to pick up senior citizens who would be unable to evacuate by themselves and drove them to higher ground.
A sixth-grader who took part in the drill said she was now clear where to evacuate when a disaster hits.
A senior member of the participants said he hopes everyone will remember what to do in the event of a disaster and take action to protect themselves.