The latest report released by the Hokkaido government on Tuesday (June 6) pointed out that if a large-scale earthquake and tsunami occurred in the coastal areas of the Sea of Japan, in the worst case scenario, up to 3 people would die and 7500 buildings would collapse. This is the first time that Hokkaido has systematically estimated the loss of life and property that may be caused by earthquakes and tsunamis, and plans to use this as a basis for formulating local disaster reduction policies and disaster prevention education in the future.
According to Japanese media Kyodo News, the Hokkaido government conducted an assessment of multiple active faults in the Sea of Japan in 2017 to simulate the impact range of a tsunami. At that time, it was estimated that a tsunami height of up to 26.9 meters could occur in Setana Town in the southern part of the island. The newly released data is based on this to further simulate the scenarios and damages of 33 coastal areas in different seasons, daytime and nighttime.
The simulation results show that if a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurs off the southern coast of Hokkaido late at night in winter, only 20% of residents will be able to take shelter immediately after the earthquake, and up to 7500 people may die, of which about 4100 will die of hypothermia due to lack of shelter facilities.
It is worth noting that this estimate does not include the damage in the Honshu region. The Hokkaido government said that it is currently focusing on local risk control and disaster prevention resource allocation, and will also plan to respond to nearby earthquake risks in the future, such as the “Nankai Trough Earthquake” and other distant sources that may affect Hokkaido. If a Nankai Trough earthquake occurs, it will not only have a devastating impact on central Japan, Kinki and Shikoku regions, but may also trigger a tsunami that threatens multiple coastal cities on the Sea of Japan side.
AloJapan.com