The Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred on March 11, 2011, caused 15,899 deaths, and 2,528 people were never found (NPA, 2020). So far, drowning has been the main cause of death in tsunami disasters. However, NPA(2012) reported causes of death other than drowning in the Great East Japan Earthquake include death due to fire, crush injuries, traumatic shock, other causes, and unknown causes.
We use victim data provided by Miyagi Prefecture Police Headquarters, which was aggregated from victim data from the Great East Japan Earthquake. First, we analyzed the causes of death due to the Great East Japan Earthquake in Miyagi Prefecture using the victim data.
As a result of our analysis, the causes of death in Miyagi Prefecture during the Great East Japan Earthquake were classified into the following twelve categories: injuries to the head, injuries to the neck, injuries to the thorax, unspecified multiple injuries, traumatic shock, asphyxiation excluding drowning, drowning, death due to fire, hypothermia, heart disease, other, and death from an unknown cause.
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