Kirk here posting again about how to interpret evacuation levels. For those of us in Kumamoto City (which currently at Level 4), Level 4 does NOT mean that we all have to evacuate, regardless of our housing circumstances. If everyone attempted to do so, that would itself be a sort of disaster. To determine whether or not you need to evacuate, you need to look at the flowchart in the following post: https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0DdVLZRKzVF3HXGFrxqDnHV63KYwbF327noiad5QeVScyJvVwS2vegbZVGdJXCiB3l

If you are in a strong building that is not in a flood plain, stay put.

The flowchart starts with reference to a “hazard map.” Hazard maps are maps that show areas that are vulnerable to certain kinds of disasters: flooding, landslides, costal storm surges, etc. So, unless you’re sure than none of those apply to your, you should really look at a hazard map to check to see whether you need to be concerned. I’ve posted a couple of times about hazard maps:

For Kumamoto City: https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0LBDJa6YNRoQdXPAkaaDMjNgURTnuVYZDrBp8yhg2KKWDyXoxxKecYDahSk27w2gul

For the whole country, including Kumamoto City, check out NHK’s hazard map referenced in the following post of mine: https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0zSoJh7mtcX9FmpxnA5DxL2i3bVhpNkKT6BHSUWMgXJdNYVkdAxqX5ZSWkAeBjgKzl

My complaint: There are many things I like about Japan but I’ve found public communication on issues like this to be terrible. In fact, I was just looking at a video on the NHK WORLD-Japan site and the announcer said, in English, that Level 4 means that EVERYONE needs to evacuate. If the announcer at NHK gets it wrong, and the director doesn’t tell him to do it over, how can they expect ordinary people to understand?

I think poor communication like this probably leads most people to ignore warnings and do whatever they would do anyway. The whole point of such warning systems is to save the lives of the few people who might actually get trapped and require rescue! Causing people to throw up their hands in frustration and just do what they would do anyway defeats the whole purpose of the warning system. :(