A town hall located several kilometers inland was the designated disaster evacuation site in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. Immediately after the magnitude 9 earthquake hit Tohoku on the afternoon of March 11, a young town employee broadcast an urgent evacuation order to local residents. Her broadcasts continued until the tsunami hit, submerging the announcer, the evacuees and the hall itself.
Given tragic examples like this, one wonders: Could more have been done to anticipate the tsunami and lessen its impact? Or is it impossible, practically speaking, to prepare for a natural disaster of this magnitude?
These are the questions that concern Rajib Shaw, 42, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, who specializes in disaster and environmental management.