Tsunami Evacuation Risk Evaluation of the Elderly Person Based on the Questionnaire Survey

Abstract eng:
Two of the issues facing tsunami evacuation planning include availability of refuge facilities and evacuation time of residents. In the current study, We investigated the awareness of residents seeking tsunami refuge by a questionnaire survey and evaluated the tsunami evacuation risks of elderly and non-elderly residents. A questionnaire survey was carried out to investigate the refuge actions of non-elderly and elderly residents of A Elementary School District, Osaka City, and to compare evacuation times. Refuge action was analyzed according to area, individual attribute, and behavior before the refuge action. Survey participants responded in either of two categories: “I escaped immediately” (1.6%) or “I escaped after performing some kind of action” (98.2%). Reasons for evacuation included “televised evacuation information” (25.2%) and “appeals from other persons” (35.9%), indicating warnings from neighborhood residents are more likely to promote tsunami evacuation behavior. Tsunami evacuation risk was evaluated based on the results of the questionnaire survey. A total of 4,697 non-elderly (estimated number of evacuees was 4,418) and 952 elderly (estimated number of evacuees was 886) residents were subjects for risk evaluation. Time elapsed and evacuation completion rate is determined by the number of evacuees, and residents able to reach tsunami refuge facilities were considered to be safe. The mean evacuation time of everyone was 58.5 minutes (estimated executing rate of evacuation was 94.1%) and the time of eldery was 63.9 minutes (estimated executing rate of evacuation was 93.0%). Maximum evacuation time of the non-elderly and elderly was 111 minutes and 118 minutes, respectively. Evacuation time consists of time of action before start of evacuation and travel time. The average travel time to the tsunami refuge facility was 8.2 minutes for the elderly, evacuation time had increased up to 109.8 minutes by the action before evacuation. Many residents were aware of tsunami refuge facilities and were found to be able to evacuate on their own. However, the number of residents that evacuated immediately was small. Elderly residents, in particular, were found to wait for televised evacuation information. In addition, elderly residents had a higher tendency to bring valuables and personal belongings than non-elderly residents. It is necessary to improve early evacuation measures to reduce their evacuation time by understanding characteristics of behavior.

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