ITO Case Study on Disaster prevention and assistance in action

Natural disasters are a tragic reality.  They strike frequently and often with very little warning, causing disruption to power and energy networks. This can directly affect hundreds of thousands of people who are often forced to seek temporary accommodation and need  fuel for heating, lighting and cooking. 

Power or energy supplies from centralized distribution networks are interrupted or lost, and natural gas networks get damaged. As a result, key emergency centers, facilities, hospitals etc. are unable to easily activate recovery actions. 

Basic needs for cooking, cleaning, hot water, heating at assembly and evacuation centers, become difficult to satisfy. Emergency transport activities to transport people or deliver relief materials are also compromised.

On 18 June 2018, an earthquake measuring 5.5 Mw on the moment magnitude scale struck in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The human cost was 4 dead & 434 injured. Many still remember the other great earthquake in the area in 1995 which claimed 6,434 & the 2011 East Japan earthquake & tsunami in which 15,896 deaths were confirmed & 2,539 still missing. Japan is constantly re-developing its regulations & infrastructure to mitigate disaster damage both to human life & buildings. Shaking from the June earthquake was felt strongly in and around metropolitan areas of Osaka and Kyoto, temporarily disrupting electrical & gas service to 170,000 homes & buildings. The natural gas grid in the affected area was managed by Osaka Gas & 111,951 homes were subject to emergency shut-off. Many installations in buildings & industrial areas as well as some domestic estates were automatically shut down as the quake hit utilizing the ITO earthquake shut off system as required by Japanese law. This system shuts down gas supply lines using no electricity just the pressure in the supply line & a precisely calculated detection system. These thereby secure safety to many areas from secondary disaster.