The effects of the earthquake where enormous, primary, secondary, long and short term. I think the most devastating primary effect is the amount of people that lost their lives; over 5,400 people were killed, more than 27,000 injured, and due to the amount of buildings that were ruined (More than 102,000 buildings) it left 300,000 homeless. It was not only building s that where damaged during the quake, matters were made worse when rescue operations were hindered by roads, railways and other modes of transport all being damaged. Kobe is actually situated on a strip of flat land between high mountains and the sea. This narrow strip of land carries all the communications routes between northeastern Japan and western Japan. Emergency aid for the city needed to use these routes, but many of them were destroyed during the earthquake. Gas and electricity supplies were also damaged, like most cities, services like water, gas, electricity and sewerage were provided through a system of underground pipes and cables, and when the ground began to shake, the more rigid pipes weren't able to move as well so they split. Almost three quarters of the water supply across the entire city was cut off, gas pipes leaked gas into the air, and sewers discharged their contents into the streets.
Against the fire fighters best efforts there were at least a dozen major fires that burned for up to two whole days before they were brought under control. And research has suggested that 500 deaths were due to fires, and that almost 7000 buildings were destroyed by fire alone.
If the earthquake hadn’t destroyed enough physical things it also destroyed the city of Kobe’s confidence in its central governments ability to cope with the crises, the earthquake showed how venerable such a complex modern city can be, the authorities admitted that they were overwhelmed with the magnitude of the disaster for example it took almost 2 years for the port of Kobe to be fully operational again, professor Katsuki Takiguchi from the Tokyo institute of technology said “ The most valuable lesson……is that…..Japan is not earthquake proof. We always believed that Japan was ahead of everybody else. It turned out we are not.”
Preparation for an earthquake is always hard as it is hard to know when it will happen and how disastrous the consequences will be. And the Kobe earthquake showed that there were certainly some problems with the already standing preparation, in the earthquake people were seen running outside buildings with the risk of flying debris and also ignoring small fires. However since the 1995 quake in Kobe Japan has introduced a few measures to try and save as many lives as possible if such a disaster should strike again. Four times a year the school children of Japan are put through earthquake and fire drills and kits for use during an earthquake can be bought from department store (these kits include a bucket-for fires, bottled water, food, radio, torch, first aid kit and protective head gear.)
The government has also made a disaster prevention day every year on the 1st of September were companies and families alike can learn new and better way to act during an earthquake which could save lives this day also marks the day of the Kanto earthquake in Tokyo.
As I have mentioned earlier trying to predict an earthquake is very difficult, but with careful observation of the key areas, even a few minutes of notice can save lives, such method as measuring the amounts of radon gas emitted, also changes in ground levels, and monitoring the accumulation of strain along the fault can all suggest an earthquake.
