Citation

Okinaga S, Daito H, Suzuki M, Shiihara J, Arai H. Nippon Rinsho 2013; 71(6): 1097-1102.

Affiliation

Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Tohoku University Hospital.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Nippon Rinsho)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

23855220

Abstract

The megathrust earthquake and the towering tsunami hit the east coast of Japan on March 11th of 2011 after intervals of 1,142 years. About 90 % of nearly 20,000 victims were drowned in devastating waves, while every town and city along the coast turned out to be a ruin. Over 400,000 people were forced to move to the evacuation centers where the evacuees slept on the floor without electricity, running water or heating systems at freezing nights. Emergency medicine, therefore, was more required during the evacuation phase than during the acute phase of the tsunami disaster. Here discussed is the phenomenon that the events happened mostly to the elderly evacuees especially in the swept area by silty polluted seawater.

Language: ja