Kobe Earthquake
Uploaded by alexaylen on Oct 29, 2001
An earthquake struck on the 17th January at 5:46 am in the south-central part of Japan. This earthquake was 7.2 on the richter scale and caused mass destruction. It was called The Great Hanshin Earthquake. Its focus was only 30 km below ground. Shock waves travelled to the surface and splintered buildings, roads and mains supplies of gas water and electricity. The Japanese were in a hard to live state. This also hit Osaka and Kyoto.
Kobe has a 1.5 million population its self.
All children experiencing the vibrating dived under their desks using them as shelters for protection. This stopped falling things hitting them.
The plates which came into contact with each other were the Pacific and Eurasian plates.
The strong ground shaking lasted for over 20 seconds. Hundreds of aftershocks remained for days after the incident, which worried people.
Evacuation shelters opened a couple of days later on the 24th January. They slowly began to realise there wasn't enough so they used schools to store people. On the 26th January 566 shelters had been opened. Some had to live in tents, BUT at night it dropped below freezing point!
Kobe finally managed to get their Electricity restored on January 23rd, Water service on the 31st March and Gas 11 days later in April. Schools were quick to open their doors. They opened 1 month later.
The damage caused, spread over a 100km radius from the epicentre in Awaji
This was the most devastating earthquake to hit Japan since the one in 1923 that flattened Tokyo. That earthquake was named The Great Kanto Earthquake.
Kobe is a port in Japan. This region has a 10 million population- this was why there were so many deaths. The port was crippled and could not trade. It had just been rebuilt because it had been heavily damaged during the second world war.
The amount of buildings left was minimal. Kobe was reduced to a number of buildings and rubble.
Other effects of this colossal disaster was roads torn, highways blocked, ports shut down, swaying buildings, relatives and friends lost, falling objects, homes falling like cardboard, mains bursting, cars falling, trains swerving off their twisted buckled rails and many, many more.
In Kobe most roads had collapsed in about 25 places. Some say the death toll would have been multiplied if it was rush-hour.
The number of buildings obliterated was phenomenal. One person said:
"My house fell down like cardboard!"
The buildings were weakly built and...