Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 4.7
Tsunami memorial of the 1933 tsunami with warning messages (
left
). Relocation area on
top of the mountain in Yagawa village (
right
)
and damaged or destroyed 165 houses (Meiji University
2011
). Consequently, the
relocation plan was implemented after the 1933 event. There were 19 households
relocated as a group to two locations outside the 1933 tsunami inundation limit. The
only house that survived the tsunami did so because the fi rst fl oor of the house was
higher than usual, as the house was built with wood taken from an unused fi shing
boat whose planks was longer than usual for house construction at that time.
Figure
4.7
-left is a memorial rock plate of the 1933 tsunami in Yagawa village with
three warning messages: (i) Be aware of a tsunami after occurrence of an earthquake;
(ii) Go higher than this point if a tsunami comes; and (iii) Do not live in the tsunami
danger zone. Despite these measures, the 2011 tsunami was much higher, measuring
18.5 m (Cabinet offi ce
2011b
), and the tsunami inundation area was extremely large.
As a result, the 2011 tsunami claimed 8 lives from the population of 167, equal to a
fatality ratio of 4.79 %—higher than that of Niranohama village. The damage also
includes the only house that survived from the 1933 tsunami, which later became one
of the relocated houses after the 1933 tsunami but fi nally washed away by the 2011
tsunami (Suppasri and Abe
2013
). Unlike the two above examples, recovery of aqua-
culture activities in Yagawa is still slow after 2 years. The fi shing port is deeply sub-
merged even when the tide is not high as Yagawa is located closer to the earthquake
epicenter. This village has a similar reconstruction plan to the others; its residents will
move to high ground by excavating part of the mountain (Fig.
4.7
-right).
4.4
Discussion
4.4.1
The Seawalls Controversy
There is one point to be mentioned here concerning moving to high ground: most
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