Northridge : Japanese Visitors Seek Ideas on Quake Aid

Members of a Japanese think tank team seeking ways to improve disaster relief efforts in their country on Wednesday visited a Northridge organization formed to help victims of the Northridge earthquake.

The nine members of the group met with leaders of Community Assisting Recovery Inc. with the hope of using the private, nonprofit organization as a model for developing a similar organization in their homeland.

The Japanese team members said they are seeking ways to help 50,000 homeless people who are still languishing in relocation camps in the wake of the Jan. 17, 1995, Kobe earthquake. Some team members said their government’s efforts to meet the needs of earthquake victims have been inadequate.

The group has toured various public and private agencies in the United States, including the office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C.

“We don’t know that the government in the U.S. is doing enough to help the people, but they are certainly doing more than the government in Japan,” said Osamu Koide, a professor of urban planning at the University of Tokyo.

During the team’s visit to Northridge, George Kehrer, executive director of Community Assisting Recovery, offered tips on how to fortify homes against quakes and how to document damage and deal with insurance companies.

In the Kobe quake, only 2% of property owners had insurance, said members of the visiting team. The Japanese government, under increasing pressure to help, is now offering low-interest loans for people to rebuild houses destroyed in the disaster, they said.