Kobe Earthquake Essay

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However, many people did survive the earthquake, and this was mainly because the new buildings that had been built were a lot sturdier and so didn’t get damaged as much in the earthquake, which saved a lot of lives. Also, although the emergency services couldn’t get to all places, they still managed o save a lot of people out of the rubble. Many people were taken immediately to a central building with stockpiles of food, water and blankets, and so this prevented many people from being injured the fires or aftershocks. Some buildings in central Kobe have structures which are computer controlled and adjust to the earth’s movements, and so these buildings were prevented from collapsing, and so less people were killed, and also this meant that the people in the buildings at the time were all safe. Japan is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, and so even though the government weren’t fully prepared for the natural disaster, they knew around about before the earthquake struck that it was coming, and so they were able to prevent some damage, for example, the new earthquake proof houses, and so this prevented many people from being injured or possibly even dying.

A good example of the effects that the earthquake had is from the Endo family. Mr and Mrs Endo lived in the older part of Kobe, called Nishinomiya, and so their house was not earthquake proof, as the house was built before 1960. On the night before the earthquake struck, Mr Endo went to visit and stay at his sons apartment, Kazuo. The apartment was new and so unlike the mother and fathers house, it was earthquake proof and a lot stronger than Mr and Mrs Endo’s house. When the earthquake struck in the early hours of the morning, because the roof of Mrs Endo’s house was made of heavy concrete tiles, Mrs Endo was trapped under the rubble of her house and unfortunately died of suffocation after 36hours, as the emergency services could not reach her in time. Eventually, Kazuo, helped by friends, found his mothers body at 1:20pm on the 19th January. This shows the impact the different structures of the new and old houses had on the risk of someone being hurt in the earthquake. Also, it shows how hard it was for the emergency services
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