Gov't panel calls for preparations for once-in-millennium class tsunami+

TOKYO, June 26 Kyodo -
An expert panel under the government's antidisaster council urged authorities Sunday to prepare for once-in-a-millennium class tsunami in an interim report on its work to review countermeasures against earthquake and tsunami following the March 11 disaster.
The panel of the Central Disaster Prevention Council under the prime minister said in the report that Japan's previous antidisaster measures did not anticipate the scale of the March natural calamities and may have exacerbated the resulting damage.
Japan ''must fully reflect on'' its failure to take into account the possibility of a recurrence of the massive Jogan Earthquake in 869 when compiling its disaster countermeasures, it said.
Before the March quake, the ancient quake had repeatedly been mentioned by some disaster prevention experts, but their opinions were largely brushed aside as evidence related to the quake was not clear.
The report said it is necessary to compile better antidisaster steps on the use of land and the designation of evacuation sites, while not over-relying on levees.
To date, the Central Disaster Prevention Council had only been considering countermeasures against earthquakes that have occurred repeatedly in an area based on several hundreds of years of historical data and which are viewed as likely to occur from a scientific standpoint.
But the March magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami were beyond many people's expectations and caused widespread devastation in northeastern and eastern Japan.
The panel, headed by Yoshiaki Kawata, a professor at Kansai University, has decided that it is necessary to prepare for worst-case tsunami even if historical data do not provide sufficient evidence that massive tsunami waves have occurred repeatedly in a region.
The panel will continue considering antidisaster measures, such as how to ensure the safe evacuation of residents and strengthen the tsunami observation system, before compiling a final report this fall.
==Kyodo