On the 15th Palaceside Building held an earthquake-response drill; about 50 people took part.
It began at 10:00 a.m., but the scenario was shifted half a day: a magnitude-6-lower earthquake at 10:00 p.m. At night Mainichi Building Co. staff are not in the building, so the aim was to confirm responses to fire and injuries with the overnight crew at the center: security officers (Aing) at the first-floor disaster-prevention center and facilities staff (Globeship) in the sixth-basement central monitoring room.
After the quake a temporary command post was opened at the first-floor disaster-prevention center. First, people were assumed trapped in a stopped elevator and a rescue team rushed out. Then wall cladding on the west side was assumed to have fallen; red cones and “no entry” tape restricted passage. A cafeteria fire was met with extinguishers and put out. On the fourth floor a ceiling collapse brought a traffic restriction. When store shelves were assumed to have collapsed and injured people, in the space beside the first-floor east main entrance building staff stood in as casualties — rescue from rubble, rescue breaths, AED resuscitation — as if it were the real thing (photo).
Mainichi Building Co. staff also received a mass email from the safety-confirmation system and replied from their phones on a dedicated page: “safe at home,” “coming to the office,” and so on.
Palaceside Building will keep drilling and aim for a still safer, more reassuring building.