Scoop Link: Sense of crisis paid off at Mount Usu

SOBETSU, Hokkaido-The zero-casualty rate in Mount Usu's first eruption in 23 years stems from an ingrained sense of crisis among people of the Usu region.

As of Saturday morning, no injuries or deaths had been reported.

``It's obvious for us to move ourselves to safety,'' said town hall worker Hidetoshi Saito, 31. ``The youths who were on the frontline fighting the disaster in the last eruption are now mayor or his deputies and corporate presidents. They know what to do.''

On March 18, Hiroshi Okada, a professor at Hokkaido University's Mount Usu observatory, told 150 residents in Date that the peak was ready to explode, more than 20 years after the last eruption.

``It could be any day now,'' he warned.

The town community organized a meeting to brief the people on the latest developments on Mount Usu. Nine days later, tremors began, signaling an imminent eruption.

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