News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 9, 2000
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136
Alt Contact:  Mark Clemens, Emergency Management Division, 1-800-562-6108

Washington, Hyogo Prefecture of Japan agree on disaster management

OLYMPIA — Gov. Gary Locke and Gov. Toshitami Kaihara of Japan's Hyogo Prefecture today signed a cooperative agreement to improve disaster management in the two states. The agreement is an important first step in sharing information between Washington and Hyogo Prefecture.

The agreement calls for exchanges of information to improve systems in disaster management in these areas:

- Disaster cooperation among municipalities, counties, state and federal agencies.
- Training of disaster management specialists.
- Use of disaster relief volunteers.
- Collection and communication of disaster-related information.

"The sister-state relationship between Washington and Hyogo provides a natural opening for the two states to learn from working with similar natural disaster hazards, such as earthquakes, floods and landslides," Locke said. "Washington especially can learn from Hyogo's experiences with the terrible Kobe earthquake of January 1995 that killed nearly 6,400 persons and destroyed about 250,000 buildings."

Locke said Washington Emergency Management Division managers are particularly interested in learning about the prefecture's disaster volunteer system, earthquake hazard mitigation plans and programs, and disaster information and research programs.

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