Background This survey examines the availability of information in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake in X City, which was affected by the disaster, and considers future disaster response policies.

Aims/Methods For the survey, 451 households in X City were randomly selected from among the 26 818 households.

Results The survey yielded 359 responses from 248 of the 451 households.

Attributes of the respondents; of the 681 people who responded, 294 (43.2%) were male, 355 (52.1%) were female, and 4.7%did not disclose their gender. The average age of the respondents was 48.7 (±22.6 years). Four hundred and ten respondents (60.3%) were married.

The day after the earthquake; Moreover, 90 people (25.1%) were able to obtain the information they required the day after the earthquake, that is, three in four people could not obtain information.

One week after the earthquake; 223 people (62.1%) reported that they were able to obtain the information they required. (5.9%) reported that although they were gradually able to access information, they could hardly obtain any information' even after 1 week.

Significance Incidentally, 166 people responded, ‘The disaster took me by surprise and I was unable to cope with it as I wished and 156 (43.4%) said that they could cope with it as they wished. A safe community disaster program is one in which citizens learn disaster response measures in times of non-emergency.