Solutions Journalism: Reducing risks in a risky world
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2024
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Since the devastating 2011 tsunami, Japan has been piloting risk reduction solutions in areas prone to severe damage from earthquakes and tsunamis. Better communication is key to these efforts - 35% of people living in affected areas in 2011 apparently did not hear the radio announcements. Sendai City is working to solve the challenge of reliable communications by developing an emergency announcement system that uses fully automated drones. These can quickly be dispatched to tell people to evacuate when tsunami alerts are issued. This new system uses a dedicated private wireless communication network and an infrared camera mounted on a drone transmits pictures of affected areas to the city's disaster response headquarters in real-time.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Lives Less Ordinary is the podcast from the BBC World Service, bringing you extraordinary personal stories from around the globe. |
| 0:09.0 | Search for Lives Less Ordinary, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:16.2 | I was in Tokyo on the 13th floor of the office building in a meeting. |
| 0:28.0 | We built the shake, but it thought it's lasting forever. |
| 0:40.0 | On March the 11th, 2011 at 2.56 PM, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan. I was frightened, but first thing I thought about was my son. |
| 0:46.0 | Is it safe? |
| 0:47.4 | The phone didn't get through. |
| 0:50.3 | I was just five years old. |
| 0:51.8 | I don't remember clearly but some girls were crying everyone was shocked. |
| 0:59.0 | After maybe one or two hours I finally got to speak to my mother. My name is Saschokkow. I'm 83. At that time, Kondang. Chaos. |
| 1:14.0 | The earthquake triggered a massive tsunami along Japan's northeast coast. |
| 1:21.0 | Sea defences were overwhelmed by huge walls of water, which wiped out entire |
| 1:27.1 | towns and villages. Some 20,000 people were killed. The nuclear plant at Fukushima had been flooded too and over the next few |
| 1:37.5 | days there were three nuclear meltdowns. Massive amounts of radiation were released and more than 150,000 people had to be evacuated. |
| 1:47.0 | I'm Ruth Evans and in this documentary from the BBC World Service, we'll be reflecting on the legacy of this triple |
| 1:55.1 | disaster and asking what have been the lessons learned for reducing risks in a risky world. |
| 2:01.3 | Three and a half thousand people have been killed after two major earthquakes hit southern |
| 2:06.6 | Turkey and northern Syria today. |
| 2:11.0 | And as the world is tested by the impact of extreme weather events and natural |
| 2:15.1 | disasters, does Japan have any solutions to offer other countries trying to |
| 2:21.0 | strengthen their preparations for such disasters. |
| 2:24.0 | Once the capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom, |
... |
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