Kobe Earthquake Essay

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and 120 of the 150 quays in the “reclaimed” port of Kobe were destroyed. In total over 2/3 of them.

There were many more secondary effects than primary effects. Many systems shut down, such as electricity, gas, plumbing, etc. Fires that were started by broken as pipes and broken electrical wires, devastated the city, rapidly destroying the many traditional Japanese wooden houses. Roads were blocked which delayed ambulances, fire engines and almost all the aid vehicles. Nearly 230,000 people were left homeless. They had to stay in unheated school gyms or even in parks. This went on for weeks! There was shortage of food and water and blankets, etc.
In the months after the quake Kobe started to get going again. Industries reopened and public …show more content…

While Japan is one of the most developed countries in the world, this particular disaster shared many of the same characteristics as those in urban areas of developing countries. The response was slow, the urban infrastructure was weak and NOT earthquake proof, the majority of people’s house were wooden causing the primary impact of the house immediately collapsing, into a bigger issue when the fires started and spread, resulting in even more casualties, their reclaimed land did not come in very useful, causing liquefaction and being destroyed very quickly and easily during the earthquake. The city was totally unprepared, of course the fact that it was early in the morning and people had no knowledge it was going to happen is a major factor, but still, we may not know exactly when future earthquakes hit and the whole point of PPP and disaster response is to have a population ready for what’s coming, whenever it is coming. The on call people monitoring seismic activity should have taken steps to notify the people necessary to warn them after four foreshocks that something is awry and could happen. In conclusion, there were many failures that day across all categories, including the “prediction”, the “preparation” (of which there was none) and “protection” (which, judging by the vast areas of Japanese houses and poorly built expressways was

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