Kobe is a large city near the south coast of Japan's main island. It is a popular city amongst tourists. It has a museum, several high-speed train stations, and an airport was being built at the time of writing, but in 1995 a relatively small earthquake threatened to destroy all this.

The Earthquake

The Kobe¹ Earthquake hit Japan early in the morning of January 17, 1995. Although it is regular to have earthquakes in Japan of magnitude 6.9 on the Richter scale this one was different; the Epicentre was just 20km south-west of the city of Kobe and it struck at just 5.46am when most people would still be in bed and some were cooking breakfast. It brought shock around the world that a country so built-up and earthquake-ready could still lose 3000 lives² and leave more than a third of the city's population homeless, because of what in Japan is classed as a minor earthquake³.

Transport and communication

Access to the sites of earthquakes is always likely to be restricted by the damage caused by the quake, because ground movements damage roads and railways. Though in Kobe the earthquake did more than anyone expected, seemingly earthquake-proof roadways failed to do their job and collapsed. 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 north- eastern Japan and western Japan. Emergency aid for the city needed to use these routes, but many of them were destroyed during the earthquake. 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.

Services

Like most cities, services like water, gas, electricity and sewerage were provided through a network of underground pipes and cables. When the ground began to move, the more rigid pipes weren't able to move as well so they fractured. Almost three quarters of the water supply across the entire city was out of action, gas pipes leaked gas into the air, and sewers discharged their contents into the streets.

Fire

When the earthquake hit fire broke out throughout the city. Remember that this earthquake struck early in the morning. Those people who were not still in bed were just getting up and making breakfast. People were cooking meals at the very moment that their homes began to shake and collapse. Cookers, sparking electric wires and hot embers from fires very quickly started over 300 fires, especially among the remains of
wooden buildings.
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. Research conducted at the Kobe University suggests that 500 deaths were due to fires, and that almost 7000 buildings were destroyed by fire alone. Fortunately it rained soon after, otherwise the damage would have been even greater.

After the Earthquake

Since the earthquake Kobe City began a restoration program details of which can be found here.