Humanitarian Logistics in the Great Tohoku Disasters 2011

Abstract

Humanitarian logistics plays a vital role in supplying emergency goods such as water, food and daily commodities to help persons impacted from disasters. This chapter presents details of the humanitarian logistics systems implemented following the Great Tohoku Disasters, “the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake” and subsequent tsunami on 11th March 2011. The magnitude of earthquake was 9.0 which was the largest earthquake in the modern history of Japan. The earthquake hit the northeast part of Japan, which is called the Tohoku region (Fig. 11.1). The number of fatalities from the earthquake and tsunami was 15,870 and with 2,814 persons missing and 6,114 persons injured (as of 26 September 2012, National Police Agency, Japan). The tsunami rather than the earthquake itself affected most persons. In coastal areas the run-up height of the tsunami was between 30 and 40 m and this destroyed a range of infrastructure including roads, railways, airports, seaports as well as a number of houses, schools, factories and offices. In some cities most of the urban area was destroyed by the gigantic tsunami. The total loss in monetary terms was estimated to be 16.9 trillion Japanese yen (about US$219 billion) according to the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (2011). At the peak, approximately 440,000 persons were displaced to refuge centres due to the severe damage to many residences. For these displaced people, humanitarian logistics was required to supply goods for living including water, food, blankets, fuel, and other daily commodities as well as medical and health care services (Holguin-Veras et al. The Tohoku Disasters: Preliminary Findings Concerning The Post Disaster Humanitarian Logistics Response. Annual meeting of Transportation Research Board, 2012).