Foreigners Transported by Ship in Tokyo Quake Drill

September 2, 2018

Tokyo- The Tokyo metropolitan government conducted a disaster drill on Sunday that assumed a powerful earthquake beneath the capital, involving the evacuation of foreign tourists by ship for the first time.

For the transport of visitors from abroad, the government used vessels of the Tokyo Fire Department, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Japan Coast Guard and private businesses.

The exercise was based on a scenario in which a quake of upper 6, the second highest on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, strikes Tokyo. About 7,000 people participated in the drill, including residents and personnel from related organizations.

Water taxis and buses were used to carry medicines and medical workers to a wharf near an integrated elementary and junior high school in Minato Ward. At the school, local residents learned how to make a stretcher and set up a spigot on a fire hydrant.

In an exercise of transporting about 60 foreign tourists, a water bus traveled in waterways in Chuo Ward including the Sumida River. Officials checked a series of responses in the event of a disaster.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike took part in a firefighting drill at the school. In a park, she later viewed an exercise of rescuing people trapped in a collapse building.

Koike told reporters, "It's feasible to use the waterfront for the transport of relief supplies (in times of disaster)." Jiji Press