The Covid-19 pandemic is forcing a critical examination of how communities and countries prepare for multiple, overlapping crises. Here are a few lessons the Japanese Red Cross Society learned after the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown ten years ago this month.
It’s been ten years since a magnitude 9 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Japan triggered a tsunami that killed 18,000 of people, wiped out whole coastal towns and caused a serious nuclear accident in the Fukushima prefecture that resulted in more than 100,000 people being evacuated from their homes.
Today, there are some signs of progress toward normalcy. The decontamination of land has been completed in most of the affected areas while atmospheric radiation levels are now the same as most major cities in the world.
But for those who lived through the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, life may never be the same. Loved ones gone. Neighborhoods leveled. In the area impacted by radiation, some 337 square kilometers are still deemed a “difficult-to-return zone”, meaning that more than 37,000 people are still not able to return to their homes.
Even for those who came from other parts of Japan to help, the event was traumatic, in large part because no one, including the Japanese Red Cross Society, had ever before dealt with simultaneous major crises of this scale: one that not only wiped entire towns out to sea but then made rescue efforts extremely risky due to potential radiation poisoning.
Red Cross nurse Ayumi Watanabe recalls how her team was providing medical help to weary and frightened people at a gymnasium in the town of Soma.
“The nuclear power plant had exploded and we had no choice but to leave. We heard blaming words from the evacuees like, ‘You are abandoning us, aren’t you?’ With mixed feelings of guilt and a sense of fear of the radiation, we forced ourselves to move to Kawamata. My heart was nearly broken with sorrow.”
While the Japanese Red Cross Society has long experience providing medical treatments for radiation poisoning at certain hospitals it manages (due to legacy of treating survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb blasts), the National Society was not ready to deal with such widespread contamination from radio-active materials.
In many parts of the world, a similar situation is unfolding with Covid-19, as health systems worked feverishly to adapt while also keeping healthcare workers as safe as possible. With Covid-19, most communities had some time to prepare for the virus’ arrival. But it’s still a tremendous challenge when a pandemic, toxic agent or radioactive contaminant complicates emergency efforts.
After the great earthquake and tsunami of 2011, one of the biggest challenges for the Japanese Red Cross Society was the uncertainty around how to work safely in areas impacted by radiation. A key part of preparing for these emergencies, say experts, is setting clear standards for radiation exposure and providing training, as well as protective and testing equipment.
This is why for many at the Japanese Red Cross Society, the tenth anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami is a critical time to stress the importance of preparing for just these sort of overlapping crises.
The arrival of Covid-19 has only heightened that awareness. In places where communities are recovering from the impact of storms, the pandemic has created enormous new complications, while places already struggling with Covid-19 have found themselves then confronting the arrival of a hurricane or other large-scale crisis.
Japan, for example, was still recovering from Typhoon Hagibis in 2019 when COVID-19 came along, complicating recovery efforts and causing still more economic and social pain.
This is one reason that Masakazu Karube, director general of the Disaster Management and Social Welfare Department in the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS), says it’s so critical that countries share what they know and come together to prepare response plans — particularly for complex disasters that involve technological hazards such as radioactive, biological or toxic materials.
“What happened in Fukushima was a triple disaster of an earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear accident,” he says. “It is of vital importance to share what we have learnt with the world. Nuclear power plant accidents do not respect borders and cannot be resolved by the country of origin alone.”
For the Japanese Red Cross Society, it was a painful lesson. In the days following this triple disaster, JRCS relief teams found themselves in a very complicated situation due to lack of knowledge about radiation, deficiency of radiation protective equipment and materials such as devices for measuring radiation levels, and lack of standards for activities in a radiation environment.
“At that time, the JRCS had no clear protocols to secure the safety of the relief team members while conducting relief activities in a radiation environment. Also, the fears and anxieties due to radiation did not allow the teams to conduct enough relief activities in Fukushima in that moment.”
The cataclysmic scale of the disaster also raised awareness about the need to respond to the mental health of the people affected. For that reason, JRCS positioned psychosocial support as one of the main relief activities.
“It is of vital importance to share what we have learnt with the world. Nuclear power plant accidents do not respect borders and cannot be resolved by the country of origin alone.”
Masakazu Karube, director general, Disaster Management and Social Welfare Department, Japanese Red Cross Society
Getting the response right is particularly critical because more earthquakes are predicted to occur in the near future, while climate change has made typhoons and river floods more intense in the past few years. As an example, in February, an aftershock of the Great East Japan Earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, but fortunately had no impact on nuclear facilities.
“As the nuclear accident is often called ‘low-frequency but high-impact disaster’, the impact is very high once it happens,” says Karube. “We do not know when it will happen again, but now we are more prepared. It is the responsibility of the state hosting nuclear power plants to be prepared for any contingency, for the sake of not only their own citizens but also the surrounding countries and beyond.”
This is one reason the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is also pushing for greater investment in multi-disaster preparedness. Money spent in planning is well spent not only because of the human lives saved, but also because it lessens the damage and hastens both social and economic recovery.
For its part, the JRCS has been preparing for possible future nuclear emergencies by strengthening its own capacity to respond to a nuclear emergency, developing clear safety and technical standards, training staff, and collecting and disseminating information on nuclear emergencies (see more details below).
As Japanese Red Cross Society nurse Ayumi Watanabe sharing and learning from the experience will be one way to make something positive come from that horrifying day. “I remember at the evacuation center in Fukushima there were countless occasions that I was told, ‘Thank you for your effort for taking care of us’ … Now I feel that I should have been the one to thank them, and here I am with such a valuable experience. I really believe now that there were not only bad things [from this tragedy], but some good.”
1- Preparedness starts early. Fifth grade studentHaruma Kobayashi attends the Red Cross youth disaster preparedness programme that is a regular part of regular activities in Hisanohama Elementary School in Iwaki, Fukushima. |Photo: Kouji Matsumoto
2- Radiation awareness is now part of everyday life in Fukushima. Outside this elementary school, a Geiger counter measures the level of radiation on the school grounds. |Photo: Kouji Matsumoto
What can your Red Cross Red Crescent National Society can do to be prepared for a overlapping, technological disaster? Here are six key steps recommended by the Japanese Red Cross Society and other experts.
It’s the stuff of science fiction: machines that make decisions about who and when to kill. Referred to as “autonomous weapons”, they’re already in use to some degree. But as more sophisticated systems are being developed we wanted to an expert in the field about whether such systems comply with international humanitarian law and what it means for humanity to give machines the power over human life and death.
In this episode, we talk with humanitarian communicator Kathy Mueller who produced our first magazine podcast series, The Wildfire Diaries, about massive wildfires in Northern Canada in 2017. We talk about that series, her many international missions, and the big changes in humanitarian communications since she began with the Canadian Red Cross almost 20 years ago.
In this episode, we talk about the power of storytelling to inform and inspire. “Storytelling is a fundamental aspect of human communication,” says our guest Prodip, a volunteer and multi-media storyteller for the Bangladesh Red Crescent. “It inspires us to be a hero of our own community.” We also speak with one such community hero, Dalal al-Taji, a longtime volunteer and advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities in emergencies response. “In disasters. persons with disabilities sometimes get forgotten.”
Volunteers inside some Mexican prisons not only save lives, they leave a ripple effect of compassion for others.
Red Cross Red Crescent magazine 
Tech & Innovation
Climate Change
Volunteers
Health
Migration