People were not aware and did not expect the earthquake to happen as Kobe is not in the earthquake zone. To predict an earthquake is very expensive. People were not prepared for the earthquake as it was very early in the morning, many people would still be in bed so it was very hard for people to escape. The majority of deaths were caused by fire spreading. Some people were trapped under rubble for hours until they died of suffocation, but volunteers made an effort to decrease that, by searching with their bare hands for victims. Over 600 aftershocks occurred, which made even more people die. At the time of the earthquake 1,700 people died and 1,017 people were missing. As the time went on the death toll increased to approximately 3000 people.
Thousands of people died in the Kobe earthquake. These were the reasons why so many people died.
The earthquake caused many buildings, houses, roads and bridges to collapses for example the Hanshin Expressway. Most people would still be asleep in their homes as the earthquake happened this made it worse as people could not escape. Furthermore most houses were built with heavy concrete roof tiles and were not earthquake proof as houses were built in the 196os. This led to many people still trapped under the rubble, suffocating.
The collapsed buildings caused underground gas and water pipes to burst open making the air polluted. This is extremely dangerous as broken gas pipes could be flammable and sparks from severed electrical cables, it could easily catch fire.
Water and electricity supplies were cut down which meant that there was no clean water to drink, as a result drinking dirty water would cause diseases as it could also spread.
As people's homes were destroyed, many people had to suffer and live in cold, difficult conditions as it was in January which made the situation worse because it was freezing, and diseases were caught, for example influenza. Due to these problems, many people had to go to hospital, but they couldn’t because of two main reasons. Firstly most hospital were collapsed, this meant that there was a lack of medical supply. Secondly because of collapsed buildings and rubble blocking roads, people could not commute.
In addition, the deficiency of water supply also meant that it was difficult for people to put out fires. As there were also strong winds blowing, fires spread quickly, people were burnt to death, theses problems also made it hard for firemen to put out fires.
There were many effects during and after the earthquake, these were divided in to primary and secondary effects. These are some of the primary effects.
Firstly nearly 144,032 buildings were destroyed by the ground shaking, 7,456 buildings destroyed by fire and 82,091 collapsed buildings. Further more 1km stretch of the Hanshin Expressway collapsed, plus numerous bridges along a 130km section of bullet train (Shinkansen) route were damaged. Several trains on minor lines were derailed as well as 120 of the 150 quays in the port of Kobe were destroyed.
Moving on to the secondary effects, firstly electricity, gas and water supplies were ruined. As a result fires were caused by broken gas pipes and electricity mains; raged for several days destroying a further 7500 houses (many of them which were made of wood).
Secondly an estimated 230,000 people were made homeless and had to live in temporary shelters (unheated school gyms or in open parks) at the time when night temperatures dropped to -2˚c. There was a short term shortage of blankets, clean water and food.
Thirdly, people were afraid to return home as 716 recorded aftershocks lasted several days after the earthquake (74 strong enough to be felt by humans).
And finally industries, including Mitsubishi and Panasonic were forced to close.
In conclusion, so many people died in the Kobe earthquake because no one knew it was going to happen and people were unprepared for it. Many homes in Japan were not earthquake-proof, leading to many deaths. The fact it was in the middle of January caused a big effect on the number of deaths. People died from freezing conditions and the outbreak of influenza and other diseases.
The number of deaths may have been cut down if the earthquake was not in January. The fact the Kobe earthquake was in the middle of January, which made it difficult for people. Homes were lost so people had nowhere to sleep at night and it would have been freezing. This is what caused a number of deaths. However if the earthquake had been in the summer it would have saved lives.
As Japan is a rich country. It is one of the most advanced in technology country in the world. They have learnt to build strong, seismic design (earthquake- proof) houses and buildings, so that they are prepared for earthquakes in the future. These buildings have structures which are computer controlled and adjust to the earth’s movement. The Japanese work out how to spend money when buildings are lost in an earthquake. They know now what to expect and what to do in the next earthquake, more than they did before.
