Evacuation drill at Genkai plant

October 10, 2016

Evacuation drill for Genkai nuclear plant accident draws 2,500 locals

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/10/10/national/evacuation-drill-genkai-nuclear-power-plant-accident-participated-2500-locals/#.V_zPXMldeos

JIJI

SAGA – About 2,500 residents in Saga, Fukuoka and Nagasaki prefectures took part in a joint evacuation drill Monday, practicing for a serious accident at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Genkai nuclear plant.

Some municipalities, including the plant’s host town of Genkai, Saga Prefecture, conducted exercises for multiple disasters causing the collapse of homes, based on lessons from the powerful earthquakes in April in Kumamoto Prefecture.

All four prefectures are located in Kyushu.

Among the various components of the exercise, about 40 residents in Genkai took shelter at the town office on the assumption that their homes were destroyed by an earthquake. They also evacuated by bus to a facility in the Saga city of Ogi by taking a 35-km alternative route, assuming that the most direct route was unusable due to quake damage.

At the Ogi facility, officials simulated the operation of a shelter for evacuees.

A helicopter and high-speed ship were meanwhile used to carry residents from the island of Iki in Nagasaki Prefecture to Fukuoka Prefecture.