The Least Useful Guide to Fukuoka

Image retrieved from https://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/contents/covid19-saigaihinann.html

I am so upset with the newly established evacuation rules which are so confusing and hard to follow.

We used to be told to evacuate to public evacuation shelters set up in local schools, village halls and so on, when a natural disaster occurs and/or is expected to occur. It was the ultimate rule. Go to shelter. Period. No exception. 

But this time, after the spread of the COVID-19, governments, whether it is central or local, suddenly started suggesting something called "分散避難 (dispersed evacuation)"(with excuse) to avoid close contacts of people. This means that you can stay at home or evacuate to someone's home or hotels.  It is up to you which way you choose. You decide on your own. 

The tragedy is that we are not good (to be precise, we are hopeless, because we haven't been trained to do so) at making such live-or-die decisions (there is no manager or boss to ask) .And if you are a "read-between-lines" type of person, you may well consider this suggestion implies that you are not supposed to go to the designated shelter to give rooms for others. But for me, after seeing shopping malls, department stores and other not-in-hurry spaces full of  people, this sounds a  bad joke.  

Even if you decide to go to a public shelter, you are supposed to take the following items:

masks,

sanitizers, 

clinical thermometer,

wipes and/or paper towels,

towels,

plastic bags (oops, it is no longer free!)

slippers, 

medications you regularly take,

medication note,

food and drinks,

cash,

bank notes, health insurance card (or photocopies of them),

personal stamp,

torch,

mobile phone,

mobile radio,

mobile battery and

portable toilet (!).

How can we bring all of them in heavy rain? 

And again, if you are a "read-between-lines" kind, you may well feel you are banned from entering the the shelter, which is supposed to save people's live. 

This is just my guess, and the truth  would never be disclosed, but these confusing and demanding evacuation rules may have made some people hesitate to evacuate and stay at home, resulting in this heavy toll.