At 5.46am on January 17th 1995, whilst many of its people of Kobe were still asleep, the Japanese city of was hit by the largest earthquake in Japan since 1923. The earthquake was not only powerful (Richter scale 6.9 ), but with the epicenter only 20km southwest of the city, it resulted in massive damage to property and loss of life. The worst effected area was in the central part of Kobe, a region about 5km by 20km alongside the main docks and port area. This area is built on soft and easily moved rocks, especially the port itself which is built on reclaimed ground. Here the ground actually liquefied and acted like thick soup, allowing buildings to topple sideways, resulting in the huge cranes in the harbor toppling over into the sea.
The earthquake caused 200,000 buildings to collapse and destroyed 120 of the 150 quays (4/5). The secondary effects of the earthquake were things such as the electricity, gas and water supplies were disrupted and fires broke out due to broken gas pipes; this caused the burning down of 7,5000 houses, which meant that almost 230,000 people were left homeless and a death toll of 5,500 people, with 40,000 people injured.
The famous high speed railway link from the Japanese capital, Tokyo, and the whole of western Japan was cut in half when the bridges in Kobe fell down. The only other two rail links were also cut during the quake
Kobe was a no enter are and things were made even more difficult because Kobe is situated on a strip of flat land between high mountains and the sea. This rather 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.
Like many large cities, Kobe had a raised motorway that allowed vehicles to travel around the city and out into neighboring towns. As the shockwaves passed under the supports holding up the motorway, the ground gave way and large sections of the road collapsed in three parts of the city. One section of the road that collapsed was over half a kilometer long!
By July water, electricity, gas and telephone services were fully operational. By August all rail services were back to normal. And one year later 80% of Kobe port was functional.
The only way to travel around the city was to use the smaller roads that were at ground level, but many of these were closed by either fallen debris from buildings, or cracks and bumps caused by the ground moving. In some places sections of the roads and pavements had been pushed up over 10 cm from their original positions, making it impossible to drive vehicles along them.
Within the next day of the quake, teams of fire fighters had arrived from all over Japan, but despite this there were at least a dozen major fires that burned for up to two whole days before they were brought under control
Like most cities, services like water, gas, electricity and sewerage were provided through a network of underground pipes and cables, these were all destroyed but by July water, electricity, gas and telephone services were fully operational. By August all rail services were back to normal. And one year later 80% of Kobe port was functional.
Within the next day, teams of fire fighters had arrived from all over Japan, but despite this there were at least a dozen major fires that burned for up to two whole days before they were brought under control.
Raised Motorway collapsed.
Seismograms of Kobe Earthquake
