An emergency shelter in a home for the elderly who require care
Kazuya YAMAGUCHI, Yoichi MIKI and Kazuyuki TAKANASHI
Abstract
In recent years, a number of disasters in Japan have affected the elderly. A disaster
warning and evacuation system for vulnerable people is important. We studied a
case in which elderly people took shelter from a sediment]related disaster in
Okoku]en, in the city of Nanjyo (Sasiki town, Simajiri]gun), in Okinawa, on 17
June 2005, and studied the problems that emerged with respect to a warning and
evacuation system in a home for the elderly. We found that it is hazardous trying
to shelter elderly persons while it is raining, and that prolonged use of a shelter
requires cooperation with other institutions in that the administrative body must
play a central role, and prolonged use of a shelter is expensive. Therefore, we
propose that disaster]planning and welfare organizations should design shelters
for institutions housing the elderly for use during sediment]related disasters,
thus reducing the expenses associated with other forms of necessary emergency
shelter.