Hilarity of the Day: Kochi Prefecture to Build Underground Shelter... Against Tsunami...

According to a Kochi resident (and nuclear scientist) whom I follow on Twitter, Kochi has been known to build absolutely worthless systems like some IT system incompatible with any system outside the prefecture that ended up as a costly, outdated LAN not even used inside Kochi Prefecture.

Kochi Prefecture, and particularly Muroto City, where this so-called shelter will be built, is regularly hit hard by typhoons. Kochi Prefecture is located in Shikoku, and is facing the Pacific Ocean.

This is plain idiocy, and therefore it will be generously funded by the national government as the Kochi governor is requesting. Just like so-called decontamination project, just like so-called wide-area disposal of disaster debris.

From Kyodo News (2/14/2013):

崖のシェルターに逃げろ　高知県、津波対策で建設へ

Run to the shelter in the cliff - Kochi Prefecture to construct shelters for tsunami

南海トラフ巨大地震で最大約３４メートルの津波が予測される高知県が、避難施設となるシェルターの第１号を室戸市沿岸部の崖の中に建設する方針を１４日までに決めた。

Kochi Prefecture is expected to be hit with a tsunami from Nankai Trough Quake as high as 34 meters (112 feet). The prefectural government decided on the plan on February 14 build the first tsunami shelter in a cliff on the coast of Muroto City.

候補地は県東部の同市佐喜浜町都呂地区。集落が海に近く、すぐ背後に崖が迫っている上、避難タワーを建設できるような適地がないという。

The candidate location is in Tsuro District of Sakihama-cho in Muroto City in the eastern Kochi. The houses are buuit close to the ocean, and the cliff is right behind the houses. There is no appropriate place to build a "shelter tower".

設計や地質調査費などとして２０１３年度の当初予算案に約６千万円を計上する。

The prefectural government will submit 60 million yen (about US$644,000) in the fiscal 2013 budget plan for design and geological survey.

シェルターはこの地区の崖に、直径約３メートルの横穴を掘る形状。入り口に２重の止水扉を設けるほか、奥には垂直の縦穴も掘削し、数十メートル上の山に逃げられるように、らせん階段を設置する予定。

A tunnel with the diameter of 3 meters will be dug into the cliff in the district. The entrance to the tunnel will have double-door that will stop the sea water. In the back, a vertical shaft will be dug, so that the evacuees are able to escape to the mountain top several tens of meters higher.

Here's the visual:

According to the Kochi resident above, there was no vertical shaft in the original plan. He suspects that was added as an excuse after the initial idea was ridiculed. The Kochi government thinks elderly residents (over 40% of this particular district) can climb up a spiral staircase for the height of a 10-story building.

Nikkei Shinbun gushes that this shelter and many others like this along the steep coastline of Kochi Prefecture will each protect 100 residents for 24 hours. The tower is expected to cost 200 million yen (US$2.1 million)

24 hours? One day? Don't they know that a help didn't come to many of the disaster affected areas after March 11, 2011? It took days. In many locations, it never came. Nankai Trough Quake is estimated to be Magnitude 9.1. And they think sheltering residents for 24 hours is enough.

So what are other obvious problems?

• They think they can close the double door and the tsunami won't come in. Fine. Why do they think it can open again? Tsunami debris anyone?

• Why do they assume the vertical shaft would remain intact after a mega earthquake like the one they are anticipating? For that matter, why do they assume the cliff will survive the quake and tsunami?

• Water-tight means air-tight. Any plans for oxygen tanks?

and

• Who is going to close the double door, when, no doubt, there are still people trying to get in?

More than anything, the human instinct when a tsunami is coming is to run to the higher ground. That's the only thing that worked in March 11, 2011 tsunami. There were stories of farmers and fishermen in their 80s who ran so fast that they were amazed at themselves. Instead, the Kochi government wants the residents to go underground, to a location practically on the sea level.

It is not just human instinct. When the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake hit, animals headed uphill. Humans who followed the animals survived the tsunami.

The idiotic governor who came up with this brilliant idea is Mr. Masanao Ozaki, another Tokyo university graduate and former career bureaucrat from the central government, from the Finance Ministry. A 45-year-old punk who won the second term of governorship in November 2011 because there was no other candidate. Well, the above Kochi resident says Kochi people deserve what they will get, for having selected this guy by default.

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