Palaceside Building held an “earthquake-response drill” on Disaster Prevention Day, September 1; about 50 people took part, centered on the fifth-floor Mainichi Building office, the first-floor disaster-prevention center and the sixth-basement central control room.
The Great Kanto Earthquake was 93 years ago, in 1923; each year drills are held in many places and the day is given to disaster prevention. Mainichi Building also drills around this date every year.
The drill started at 10:00 a.m. with a magnitude 6-lower quake; the building lost power and they confirmed starting the emergency generator at once. When the shaking stopped, each Mainichi Building section and partners Aing (security), Globe Ship (facilities) and Seibi (cleaning) reported headcounts and safety one after another; an “earthquake countermeasures HQ” was formed with the Mainichi Building president as chief (photo above). Facilities staff set out with radios to inspect per the manual and that day’s command (photo at lower right); sales went around checking tenant safety on each floor and the garage.
Then reports gathered at HQ: “two escalators stopped, three people trapped,” “someone fell from an escalator and was hurt,” “fire in a first-basement cafeteria,”
“a self-inflicted accident in the B4 garage, foam extinguisher activated”; these were written on a whiteboard and people were sent to the relevant sections.
Meanwhile at 10:35 a strong magnitude 5-upper shake came again. After taking cover under desks, they rechecked the safety of staff including those in the field.
They kept at it until 10:50 with scenarios such as “shelves collapsed in a first-floor shop and someone was trapped.”
From 11:00 a.m., after the drill, a review listed not only what went well but missed reports, inaccurate transmission, incomplete orders, neglected end-of-work reports… and confirmed future tasks.
Besides spring and autumn comprehensive fire drills with water and other practice, Palaceside Building holds earthquake-response drills like this three times a year, spring, autumn and winter. Each time the situation changes — midnight occurrence and more — to be ready when it counts.