Kumamoto earthquake: Evacuees face inadequate conditions at some shelters

KUMAMOTO – More than a week after a devastating quake struck Kumamoto Prefecture, some evacuation shelters still fail to offer adequate living conditions to evacuees.In Uki, the opening of some evacuation shelters was delayed for a few days for reasons such as safety checks. As a result, evacuees became concentrated at other shelters.More than 500 evacuees flooded into one shelter despite its capacity being 450, forcing people to sleep crowded together on the floor with insufficient air-conditioning.“[Some evacuation centres] are unexpectedly overcrowded. We would like to find out what the problem was,” said the head of the city’s welfare department.In Dec 2024, the central government revised guidelines for local governments to manage evacuation centres following the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, in which the number of quake-related deaths, meaning those who died later due to effects of the disaster, exceeded the number of those who were killed directly in the disaster.In line with what are known as the Sphere standards, which provide international benchmarks for the living environment that needs to be ensured at shelters, the government is urging local governments to meet the following conditions:3.5 sq m of living space per personone toilet per 20 peopleone bathing facility per 50 peopleHowever, a Cabinet office official said that local governments put priority on food and drinking water, so they do not have enough other stockpiled materials, such as cardboard beds.Evacuation may be prolongedThere is also concern that people may have no choice but to take shelter for a long time.According to Kumamoto Prefecture, more than 13,000 houses were reported to have been damaged in a series of quakes as of Aug 4. Of those, over 1,700 houses were completely or partially destroyed.The prefecture began building emergency temporary housing on Aug 3. But the number of units is limited to 70 and there is no prospect of building additional temporary housing.“We would like to help evacuees settle down in other places as soon as possible by promoting the use of privately rented temporary housing,” a prefectural government official said. THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK