Are disaster drills that follow a predetermined scenario really useful? Because of such doubts, some people are unconvinced about the benefits of the drills.
Personal tsunami evacuation drill app Nigetore — which means "escape training" — developed by the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University, offers a new experience in disaster preparation as it allows users to choose their own evacuation routes and then evaluate whether they would have been successful in escaping a tsunami based on the time taken.
The app, developed for a possible Nankai Trough megaquake, uses estimated tsunami heights released in 2012 by an expert panel of the Cabinet Office. It covers mainly the coastal areas along the Pacific Ocean and the Seto Inland Sea.