People who buy disaster prevention goods and feel relieved are the most dangerous… Former rescue workers point out “deadly pitfalls

Fifteen years have passed since 3.11. With the increase in disaster awareness, more and more households are equipped with disaster prevention bags and various disaster prevention goods.

In addition, disaster prevention sets sold explosively on e-commerce sites whenever anxiety increased, such as the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January 2012 and the temporary information on the Nankai Trough earthquake in August 2012. A survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also found that about 40% of households have prepared disaster prevention goods.

However, former rescue team member and disaster prevention YouTuber Go Kanehira, a.k.a. Taicho of RESCUE HOUSE, warns that this “boom in disaster prevention goods” has pitfalls that can kill people.

To put it in an extreme way, “Don’t pack a disaster prevention bag,”” he says.

A professional disaster prevention expert says, “Don’t carry a disaster prevention bag. We asked him what he really meant.

What is the trap of the myth of disaster prevention goods?

The “30-Piece Evacuation Set” is a product that is sold on e-commerce websites.

Many of us have probably clicked on these catchphrases on e-commerce sites. However, Mr. Kanehira points out that this very “sense of security” can be fatal.

The moment when lives are lost is not when the disaster is prolonged, but when the earthquake is shaking, flames are shooting out, and a tsunami is approaching. In this minute-by-minute situation, the choice to run away with emergency supplies is fatal,” he said.

This is because firefighters do not run with weights on when they head to the scene. So, he questions why an untrained civilian would try to escape with a weight called a “disaster prevention bag” on his back.

However, a disaster prevention bag is never a waste of time. The timing of their appearance is different.

However, I am not denying disaster prevention bags and goods. Disaster prevention bags are something you go back to pick up a day or two after the disaster and are lucky if you find one.

But now, pulled in by the marketing of e-commerce sites, many people have stopped thinking, ‘I bought this, so I’ll be fine. Everyone’s perceptions are being updated in a different direction on their own.

Disaster prevention bags are “hope for life. However, in order to have that hope, one must first survive the disaster. That is a prerequisite.

Herd mentality invites the worst

Along with overconfidence in disaster prevention goods, Mr. Kanehira also sees “normality bias” and “sympathy bias” as another danger.

Normalcy bias” is a psychological mechanism in which the brain automatically assumes that there is nothing abnormal in order to maintain peace of mind when an unexpected situation occurs. Even in emergency situations such as disasters, the brain conveniently interprets the situation as “nothing serious” or “I am fine,” and underestimates the abnormal situation as “within the normal range.

In everyday life, this is a convenient brain mechanism that protects us, but in times of disaster, it can be fatal.

Even more troubling is “entrainment bias,” the belief that we will feel safe if we behave the same way as those around us. The next action that panicked people take is always “copying others.

Everyone else is running to the right, so I’ll copy them and run to the right,” he says. However, everyone else is just copying the person in front of them who was running to the right, and the person in the lead is not necessarily a professional disaster prevention expert.

They may have panicked and thought it would be better than staying put, but that wrong decision may lead to a chain of bad decisions, resulting in everyone running into a dangerous place.”

One of the reasons Mr. Kanehira started RESCUE HOUSE is because of a story he heard about a father and son in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

As the tsunami warning was sounding, voices were heard from everywhere telling them to run away. The mother, however, did not know whether to go right or left, so she pulled her child’s hand and ran frantically in the direction where many people were running, only to be swept away by the tsunami.

She said, “I had no knowledge of disaster prevention or tsunamis, but I wanted to protect my child even if I couldn’t save my own life, so I ran into the tsunami with my child, holding her in my arms. Miraculously, they were washed ashore, but when they looked at the hand they were holding ……, they found only one arm of their child.

Assumptions of Despair Save Families

Knowledge makes the difference between life and death. That is painfully clear from the story so far. But how can we make the knowledge of disaster prevention “personal” in our busy daily lives?

I have a one-year-old baby, so in my case, I think it’s a matter of how much I can envision situations in which he or she might be in danger.

It is a cruel idea, but Mr. Kanehira says, “It all comes down to this.

For example, if there is a major earthquake at this very moment and the refrigerator in the kitchen collapses, the baby in the kitchen will be ……. If you could imagine this, you would immediately think of putting on a fixing device. But because of normality bias, many people stop at ‘Oh well, it’ll be okay. That is why we have to consciously go so far as to imagine the worst-case scenario.

Mr. Kanehira regards such worst-case imaginings as “simulations of despair,” and says that they are the starting point for all disaster prevention.

He says that buying a disaster prevention bag and imagining the death of a loved one are two very important things. There is no need to compare which is more important. But most people buy bags but don’t imagine. It is always after something has happened that they cry, saying, ‘I never thought this would happen. So I want them to face it now.”

How to create a “safe zone” in your home

Once you can concretely imagine “death” for yourself and your family, the next step is to make specific preparations. However, the trouble here is that the “correct answer” varies greatly depending on the living environment.

If you live in an old wooden house with a high risk of collapse, it is said that the right thing to do is to run outside when the shaking subsides a little. On the other hand, if the house is a newer condominium, evacuation from the house is recommended. In other words, the actions to take are totally different depending on the age of the house, the number of floors, and the composition of the family.

Whether it is a single-family house or an apartment, whether it is on the 1st or 15th floor. Does it meet earthquake resistance standards? Are there infants or the elderly in the family? What kind of risks does the hazard map indicate for your area?

According to Mr. Kanehira, the real preparation is to think through “personalized disaster prevention” that is tailored to your own living environment.

However, there are some things that all people can do in common. That is to create a “safe zone” in one’s home.

The three principles of rescue are ‘no hitting, no cutting, and no getting caught in between. I would like you to create a space, preferably in your bedroom, where this cannot happen. Women and the elderly will be almost completely immobilized if the intensity of the quake reaches 5 or higher, so it is important to make it a place they can reach even if they have to crawl to get there.”

Protect your own life by yourself

Fifteen years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake. The number of younger generations who do not remember the disaster is increasing. The first place that comes to mind for conveying disaster prevention to them is school disaster drills, but Mr. Kanehira points out the limitations of such drills.

Teachers are not professionals in disaster prevention,” he said. And when a large number of people gather, they can only speak about what is common to all the participants. I just can’t go into personal disaster preparedness.

This is not to say that school and community drills are meaningless. But it is not enough.

You have to know what you can do to protect your own life. If you don’t know where to start, you can visit fire drills or disaster prevention events for now, or watch disaster prevention YouTube channels like mine. I hope that by doing so, you will gradually increase your knowledge.

Former firefighter and rescue team member . After leaving the fire department, he established VITA Corporation and launched the disaster prevention YouTube channel “RESCUE HOUSE” with the theme “to save lives that can be saved. The channel boasts about 490,000 registered viewers. He is the author of “Firefighter Rescuer’s Guide to Disaster Prevention” and “Great Earthquake, Tsunami, Torrential Downpour: Disaster Prevention Encyclopedia for Understanding NG Behaviors” (both published by KADOKAWA).

◆”RESCUE HOUSE” on YouTube here