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The Shelter in Your Neighborhood: Earthquake and Air-Raid Shelters Are Different Places

The Shelter in Your Neighborhood: Earthquake and Air-Raid Shelters Are Different Places
The Shelter in Your Neighborhood: Earthquake and Air-Raid Shelters Are Different Places

News of the Kumamoto earthquake in Japan has continued for 10 days.

Photos continue to emerge of shelters where people are living on blankets spread directly across gymnasium floors. There have even been reports of a large gymnasium having just three fans.

Looking at those photos raises one pressing question: Where is the shelter in our neighborhood?

3-line summary
1. Shelters are different places depending on the type of disaster.
2. For an earthquake, go to an open field; for an air raid, go underground.
3. Check the Safety Stepping Stone app today.

First, How to Find Them

There is an app called Safety Stepping Stone. It is a disaster-safety app created by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Open the app, select shelters under facility information, and search using your current location. Nearby shelters will appear on a map. It also shows outdoor earthquake evacuation sites, civil-defense shelters, hospitals, and pharmacies.

On the web, you can view them through the National Disaster and Safety Portal. This year, the portal was reorganized as National Safety 24. Its address remains safekorea.go.kr, and the previously scattered emergency action guidelines, safety maps, and safety-reporting service have been consolidated in one place.

That is how to find them. The real trap comes next.

The Single Word “Shelter” Covers Four or Five Different Things

A “shelter” is not one thing. The place you need to go differs by type of disaster.

According to a Newsis report, as of January 2024, there were 4만 3,445곳 shelters nationwide, but they are not a single category. They are divided into 1만 7,483곳 civil-defense shelters, 1만 5,110곳 temporary housing facilities for disaster victims, 9,298곳 shelters in landslide-vulnerable areas, and 1,554곳 chemical-accident shelters. The responsible agencies are also divided among the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Korea Forest Service, and the Ministry of Environment.

At the time, a Ministry of the Interior and Safety official also said that the public finds using them confusing. It was also pointed out that, in an emergency, it is realistically difficult to choose and locate an evacuation site by disaster type.

The Underground Places We Think Of Are for Air Raids

Let us start with civil-defense shelters, the most numerous type. Subway stations, underground parking garages in apartment complexes, and the basements of large buildings. They are the places marked with blue-and-white signs.

These are facilities intended for air raids. When something is falling from above, the goal is to have thick concrete and earth overhead, so deeper underground is better.

Earthquakes are the exact opposite.

For an Earthquake, Go Outside, to an Open Area

In an earthquake, the danger does not come from the sky but from the building itself. Collapsing walls, falling signs, and glass. So you need to get away from buildings.

That is why outdoor earthquake evacuation sites are designated in places such as school fields, parks, and vacant lots—places with nothing overhead. This is the complete opposite direction from going underground.

While the ground is shaking, do not move; protect yourself under a table. After the shaking stops, go outside and move to one of these outdoor locations.

If the damage is too severe to return home, the place to go is different again. Places to stay for several days or longer are temporary housing facilities for disaster victims, usually school gymnasiums or village halls. The gymnasiums shown in Japanese news reports are this type of facility.

There Is a Separate Place to Escape the Heat

What became a problem in Japan this time was ultimately the heat. People who had evacuated from the earthquake endured in gymnasiums without air conditioning and in cars, and cases of heat-related illness continued to occur.

We already have facilities designated specifically for this purpose: heatwave shelters. Local governments designate air-conditioned spaces such as senior centers, community centers, libraries, and bank branches, and open them during the summer. NewsPim reported that the Ministry of the Interior and Safety inspected operations at 전국 9만 3,000여 곳 nationwide this summer.

Their locations can also be searched in the Safety Stepping Stone app. This is information you can use today, even when there is no disaster.

Once You Have Evacuated, Do Not Go Back Inside

This is the scene that has lingered most painfully from the earthquake in Japan.

According to Japanese reports, an employee in their 20s working at a store in a shopping mall in Kumamoto evacuated outside immediately after the earthquake, then returned to the building after being instructed by the company to put sales proceeds in the safe. People nearby tried to stop the employee, but the employee went inside, and about 5 minutes later, a gas explosion occurred. A gas line is believed to have been damaged by the earthquake.

The shopping mall’s disaster-response manual reportedly also stated that no one should return to a store after an earthquake until the building’s safety has been confirmed.

After a major tremor, aftershocks follow. Structures cracked by the first tremor can collapse in the second, and gas continues to leak from severed gas lines. This is why once you have evacuated, you do not go back inside until safety has been confirmed.

Wallets, documents, and sales proceeds all come after that principle.

What Takes Just 5 Minutes Today

Install the app and check just three things.

The nearest outdoor evacuation site from home. This is where you will go in an earthquake. It is even better to check how many minutes it takes to walk there.

A civil-defense shelter near your home. This is where you will go when an air-raid warning is issued. The key is to confirm for yourself that it is different from an earthquake shelter.

One place for your family to meet. Communications are often disrupted during disasters. The National Action Guidelines in Safety Stepping Stone can be viewed even if communications are cut off, but the app does not decide where you will meet one another.

5 Minutes Today Replaces 5 Minutes Then

Finding a shelter is not difficult. Everything is in one app.

The difficult part is finding it when you are in a hurry. 5 minutes today replaces 5 minutes then.

References

Shelter figures are based on reporting from January 2024. For the latest designated locations by region, check the Safety Stepping Stone app and National Safety 24.