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Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief Evacuations Drill

U.S. Army Garrison - Japan

March 24, 2019 | 3:03

Narration:
The humanitarian aid and disaster relief evacuation drill between U.S. Army Garrison Japan and Sagamihara City was held recently on Camp Zama. Nearly 30 Sagamihara citizens living in the Soubudai Housing Complex, as well as personnel from Sagamihara City Emergency Services, practiced evacuation procedures and validated current U.S. Army Garrison Japan and Sagamihara City evacuation plans.

Interview: William A. Luna, Installation Emergency Manager, U.S. Army Garrison Japan

Narration:
The drill gave both U.S. and Japanese participants the chance to practice their role in the event of an emergency evacuation and go through the proper procedures, such as accessing the installation, providing medical assistance, establishing a “safe haven” site, and transporting injured evacuees to medical facility via ambulance.

Interview: Shinichi Suzuki, Deputy Director, Emergency Services, Sagamihara City
Our focus for today’s drill was to ensure that people living this area know the evacuation procedures for entering Camp Zama. We also would like them to increase their awareness of disaster prevention through taking part in this exercise. At the same time, we wanted to ensure our evacuation plan included a network of cooperation with U.S. Army Japan.

Interview: Morikazu Seo, Chairman, local council of Soubudai Complex
We would like to say thank you for giving us this opportunity to practice an emergency evacuation drill on such a large scale, using U.S. facilities. We didn’t expect to be able to conduct an exercise of this scale, so we deeply appreciate the work that the U.S. Army Japan and Sagamihara City put into this. However, the registration portion did take some time. Today there were 20 people, but if 100 or 1,000 evacuees came onto the base, that might be a lengthy process.

Narration:
U.S. Army Garrison Japan and Sagamihara City signed a mutual agreement for disaster preparedness and response in March 2019 in order to establish cooperation and security between the two organizations.

Interview: Shinichi Suzuki, Deputy Director, Emergency Services, Sagamihara City
We think that exchanging ideas, supporting each other’s training efforts, sharing information, and bringing up any issues is necessary in order to maintain the great relationship we have with U.S. Army Japan.

Interview: William A. Luna, Installation Emergency Manager, U.S. Army Garrison Japan

Reporting for U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs, this is XXXX XXXXX.