Man-Conceived Disasters*
S.W.A. Gunn, MD, DSc(Hon), FRCSC- How Local Hospital Staff Responded after Terrorist Attackson the World Trade Center in New York
Naoyuki Kobayashi
- A Survey of Medical Capability Responding to Hypothetical Nuclear Disasterin the Tsuruga Area of Japan
Takahiro Kojo, Shinichiro Yanagisawa and Isao Kamae
1,Man-Conceived Disasters*
S.W.A. Gunn, MD, DSc(Hon),
FRCSC
President, International Association for Humanitarian
Medicine
Honorary Chair, Asia-Pacific Conferences on Disaster Medicine
（*Reproduced, courtesy of Journal of Humanitarian Medicine 2001;1:7-8）
No Abstract
2,Damage Caused by the Geiyo Earthquake
at Matsuyama
Red Cross Hospital
Yasumasa Iwasaki1, Satoru Takeyoshi1, Yoshizumi Watanabe2 and Tsuneo Shiraishi3
1Department of Emergency Medicine, Matsuyama Red Cross
Hospital
2Administrative Bureau, Matsuyama Red Cross Hospital
3The Head of
Matsuyama Red Cross Hospital
Abstract
The Geiyo Earthquake that occurred on March 24, 2001 was of magnitude 6.4. At our hospital in Matsuyama city, Ehime Prefecture, tremors of intensity 5 strong on the Japanese seven-stage seismic scale were felt. The main damage to our hospital caused by the earthquake was as follows: (1) telephone communications were interrupted because circuits were busy; (2) water sprinklers were broken and a large quantity of water leaked onto floors 5 to 8 of the second hospital building (about 120 patients were evacuated to other hospital buildings); (3) two water tanks on the top of the building were broken and water supply was insufficient; (4) many cracks in interior and exterior walls of buildings occurred; and (5) an old chimney collapsed and much debris crashed through the roof of the staff restaurant. We learned much from this earthquake encounter, and faced many problems. Experience with this natural calamity warrants manuals for procedures in case of disaster to be drafted immediately, the manuals to contain the estimation of damage to the hospital caused by the disaster.Key words : earthquake, disaster, communication, water sprinkler, water tank
3,Damage to the Medical Facilities in Tottori-ken-Seibu Earthquake, 2000
Yukihiro Watoh1, Shinichi Nakayama2, Shin Ishihara3,
Sakayu
Terashi4 and Louise K. Comfort5
Task Force of the Japanese Association of Disaster Medicine
for
Research of the Damage to Medical Facilities
in Tottori-ken-Seibu
Earthquake
1Department of Emergency Medicine, Kanazawa Medical
University
2Department of Disaster and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of
Medicine,
Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine
3Critical Care
Medical Center, Prefectural Hospital of Hiroshima
4Osaka Prefectural Senri
Critical Care Medical Center
5Graduate School of Public International
Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
Abstract
This report describes the damage to the medical facilities bollowing the Tottori-ken-Seibu earthquake, October 6, 2000. The failure of electricity was the biggest problem in the hospitals. All of the 138 hospitalized patients in two public hospitals were transferred to other hospitals by the local EMS. The human damage was slight in spite of the high magnitude of the earthquake, 7.3 on Richter scale. The authors discuss the reasons why the human damage did not overwhelm the capacity of the local EMS and the hospitals; fortunately, most of the residents were out of their homes at the time of the impact, and other accidents, e.g. railroad accidents did not occur.Key words : earthquake, damage to medical facilities, Tottori-ken-Seibu earthquake