Kobe Earthquake

Question 1

What is the Kobe earthquake also known as?

Answer 1

The Great Hanshin Earthquake

Question 2

When did it occur?

Answer 2

17 January 1995

Question 3

What was the magnitude?

Answer 3

6.8

Question 4

How far was the epicentre from the centre of Kobe?

Answer 4

20km

Question 5

What was the economic damage?

Answer 5

$100 - 120 billion (or 2.5% of Japan’s GDP)

Question 6

How many deaths?

Answer 6

6,000

Question 7

How many injured?

Answer 7

35,000

Question 8

How many were made homeless?

Answer 8

250,000

Question 9

Why were impacts increased?

Answer 9

There was an illusion of preparedness, so many were not ready for such a large event. People felt well-prepared given the country’s research into these hazards and the money spent on risk management.

Also, the roofs had large, heavy tiles on to withstand typhoons, but these tiles fell and injured or killed people when supports collapsed.

Question 10

What was the issue with the risk management at Kobe?

Answer 10

Many older, traditional houses, and some newer ones had not been retrofitted along with a lot of the transport infrastructure, so they collapsed easily.

Question 11

Why had authorities not maintained sufficient emergency supplies for the event of an earthquake?

Answer 11

Kobe had not experienced a serious earthquake for more than 400 years.

Question 12

Why did many people accuse the government of poor management of the event?

Answer 12

1) They supposedly reacted slowly to the scale of it, allowing more people to be vulnerable

2) Not encouraging enough community volunteers

3) Refusing offers of aid from foreign governments

Question 13

What were some emotional problems?

Answer 13

Trauma of shattered communities in which people were struggling to readjust

Question 14

Why were the broken communities seen as a good thing by many in the city?

Answer 14

An opportunity to put in place sustainable development plans taking disaster threats into account

Question 15

Within a short time, what recovery missions had been accomplished?

Answer 15

1) All electric, gas, water, telecommunications and major road and rail links were restored within months

2) 48,000 housing units to support the homeless given within months

3)70% of port operations restored within 1 year

4) After 15 months, the manufacturing output of Kobe was 96% of what it had been before the quake

Question 16

What were the most important lessons to be learnt from the quake according to the city council?

Answer 16

1) Improve seismic resistance of existing buildings

2) Improve the firefighting capacity

3) Protect lifelines (have backup systems)

4) Community participation (informing the community of risks and stockpiling resources)

5) Encourage NGOs (they were more flexible than the government)

6) Disaster resistant measures such as a new canal system (reliable water supply), firebreaks and a mountain greenbelt (reducing landslides)