KOBE EARTHQUAKE

Question 1

Where is KOBE?

Answer 1

Southern side of the Japanese Island of Honshu. It lies on the N bshore of Osaka Bay, 30 km W of Osaka.
It is a Port Town.

Question 2

What is the actual name of the earthquake even?

Answer 2

The Great Hanshin - Awaji Earthquake

Question 3

When did the earthquake occur ?

Answer 3

17th Jan 1995

Question 4

WHat was the nature of the quake?

Answer 4

Occured without warning, it was a mag 6.8 earthquake.

EPicenter was 20km from central part of the city and the focus was 16km below the ground.

Question 5

How did the earthquake occur?

Answer 5

The epicenter was underneath Awaji island. Thhere was a sube terrenaean channel which was unkown to scientists that linked Awaji to a fualt directly beneath Kobe and so when pressure was released @ Awaji, it followed the channel and released pressure in form of an earthquake in KOBE, rupturing the fault line.

Question 6

How many buildings were destroyed?

Answer 6

180k, –> there was widespread damage of the buildings and homes, mostly due to the inadequate housign structures

Question 7

What natural hazards are Kobe expecting?

Answer 7

Typhoons, as seen by the typhoon proof homes,

Question 8

What was the population of Kobe?

Answer 8

~1.5million

Question 9

What was the population density of Kobe?

Answer 9

2,768/km2

Question 10

What plate boudary type did the earthquake occur on?

Answer 10

Subductive plate boundary

The oceanic Philipene plate subducted under the Eurasian plate.

Question 11

How many killed, injured and homeless?

Answer 11

6,000 killed
35,000 injured
250,000 homeless

Question 12

What were the social impacts of the quake?

Answer 12

• 6k dead, 35k injured, 250k homeless.
• Those whos homes were destroyed faced financia RUIN —> only 3% of cities buildings were insured.
• 80% of victims were crushed to death by collapsed houses (“pancaking”, bc of the heacy tiled rooves that were not supported by the timber frames of the house).–> most casualties were in concentrated wooden houses w/ narrow lanes to trespass.
• Raised motorways collapsed during the shaking
• Fires broke out in residential areas –> exacerbated by wooden traditional houses —> Instantly killed lots of ppl.

Question 13

What were some economic impats of the hazard?

Answer 13

Damage cost est : $100bn–> costliest urban disaster of its time (2.5% of Japan GDP).

The Dock Island subsidised meaning that losts of ppl lost jobs, and industriual output fell as then, it was the worlds biggest port city.

• only 3% of businesses or private households held earthquake insurance and only one-tenth to total damage could be fully recovered by insurance payments (Edgington 2009)
• $40bn oil trade loss due to 2 yrs major damage.
• Major decline in the Japanes stock market.

Question 14

WHat were some political impacts ?

Answer 14

help from a national govt took almost 2 days to arrive

The mayor (Kazutoshi Sasayama ) was an urban planner before he was a polititian and tbus prioritised the urban renewal plan bc Kobe was too overcrowed, instead of trying to rescoue ppl out of rubble and housing –> left elederly to die etc.

Question 15

Give some environmental impacts.

Answer 15

The center of Kobe was worst affected as the maj of buildings were built easily on center –> the land in the center beceame liquified, allowign buildigns to collapse and sink

FIres spread among traditional homes, resulted in pollution + release of toxins.

The earthquakes also broke water pipes leaving firefighters unable to fight quickly –> instead they had to pump water frm the rivers directly

Question 16

Why is Japan so vulberable to such hazards (earthquakes) ?

Answer 16

• Its geographical location –> lies on a subduction plate where the Pacificplate subduct under the Eurasian plate.
• Most of pop is squeezed into 20% of the lowland if the whole Island of Kobe.
• Japanese cities are v v complex landscapes , have a mixed, multi-layerd infrastrcuture (ie roads and buildings).
• Japan is also made from lots of land that is acc reclaimed from the sea –> ie Kobe has advanced 15km seaward in the last 20yrs (reclaimed land is soft + wet –> allows shockwaves to carry on for long periods of time) -, ie whilst shaking on solid rock lasts 20s, on reclaimed land it takes 2-3 minutes.

Question 17

How was KOBE specifically, not prepared for the earthquake?

Answer 17

Kobe are more prone to typhoon hazards than earthquake thus homes were built w/ to typhoon proof standards –> Typhoon proof homes thus collapsed easily as heavy tiles broke the timber frames –> killed alot of ppl

PPL were not aware of prepared for the quake –> it had last erupted 400yrs prior.

The cityventer sits 5km wide –>has densly poulated residential area to the E of it and ithas 160km of freestanding free wayG

Question 18

Generally what was the Economic character of the community ?

Answer 18

Kobe was rich city, v v well developed and v v urbanissed. Most ppl had the expensive “Typhoon resistant homes” –> thus prepared for the wrong event.

Question 19

Generally what was the Social character of the community ?

Answer 19

good education, strong senve of community and sense of place–> the ppl rejected the mayors plans to build high rise homes w/ more space around them as they preferrred the traditional typhoon homes –> felt the highrises were not “culteurally sensitve” and that they werenot “meaningful to theyr sense of place”

Question 20

Generally what was the political character of the community ?

Answer 20

Democratic, very hazard conciouse.

Question 21

How prepared was Kobe for the earthquake?

Answer 21

Japan is vv expereinced in manyearthquakes due to the geographical location along the major subduction zone whenre the philipine plate is subducted beneath the eurasian plate. It considers it self a countryw/ good preparations for the disaster sue to the vast amount of researchtheyd done into the earthquakes , however this wasnt enough to prepare Kobe for the quake as they did not expect the EQ and most ppl had not expereienced a Major quake in Kobe and thus thny ppl were not prepared (ie ppl running into streets when they should be under tables).
The vast amount of deaths were a result of the many houses having traditional style infrastructure (unbraced w/ timber pillars and heavy tiled roofs –> pancake collapse on ppl , killing them)–> meant to be TYPHOON prooof.

Question 22

In what ways were Japan/Kobe prepared for the earthquake, ie why did they think they were prepared.

Answer 22

• Japan is also v v rich _ most tech advanced country in world –> before Kobe , was onsidered well prepared.
• Ppl at school + workplace practice fire drills and eq drills around 4x a year
• ## ppl are taught how to act in an earthquake.

Question 23

What was the (political response) response ?WHat was the criticism from the financial times.

Answer 23

• took 2 days for national govt to respond –> The Financial Times claimed “politicians dithered over whether to call in the Self Defence Forces bc of the pacifict antipathy towards the military’’. → despite this , the survival rate of rescued ppl was 80.4% on the first day, + 1892 victims extricated w/ overall survival rate of 40%.

Question 24

What was the political response? was it fast slow?

Answer 24

• ## Govt responded slowly and thus more lives could’ve beensaved if quicker as more ppl would be transported from hazard areas to hospitals.

Question 25

WHat did the earthquake reveal about the communications and coordination b/w politics and administrators ?

Answer 25

• It was inadequate
• official respose was too slow
• ## there was a 5hr delay before the army was mobilised + even so, they an insufficient no of troops to help.

Question 26

What else did the govt receive recticism for (in their response)

Answer 26

• Failure to ensure high enough standards for building construcution.
• Renovation on old traditional homes would have resulted in more ppl living and less deaths and less collapses on sleeping ppl.

Question 27

What was the govt response regarding the eq (ie what were some other failed attempts at releif)

Answer 27

• Govt officials debated for several days before deciding what would be included as a military disaster zone before issuing relief
• also procrastinated in accepting help from US military based in Japan or foreign meidcal teams, and sniffer dogs.
• this showed how the political party of Kobe was disconnected that of Japan as a whole and how unprepared both really were and thus resulting in poor response.

Whilst Japan felt overall well prepared, Kobe bcit doesnt expereince much EQ’s was not –> were prepared for typhoon. and thus ppl didnt know how to act.

Question 28

What was the socio - economic community response?

Answer 28

• Many ppl didnt knowhow to react–> inadequatly trained and educated about eq’s bc didnt happen in last 400yrs –> ran OUTSIDE + hit by fallinf debris, + others tried to escape city in thier cars –> jammed roads.
• Bc ppl had correct building standards for typhoons and had training on how to react for typhoons –> were not prepared for eq and thus poor community response.

Question 29

How did the lack of community in KObe result in a poor response?

Answer 29

Kobe residents believed there was little risk from eq in kobe.
however large companies and business and factories were aware andthus set up elswhere to avid risk –> lack of community –> residents had lack of knowledge.

The risk mamangemnt schemes after kobe had a greater focus on community lead schemes.

Question 30

what did Yoshinobi Fukusawa of Kobe’s disaster reduction institution say regarding the preparaition of the ppl”

Answer 30

Yoshinobi Fukusawa of Kobe’s disaster reduction institution on 2005, 10th anniversary of National govt said “The public sector was not prepared, the people were not prepared, and the national govt was even worse”

Question 31

What were some responses to the KOBE earthquake?

Answer 31

• rebuilding homes and buildings to be fire and earthquake prood –> progress insufficient.
• 79% homes quakeproof , however , still alot of pockets w/ old homes w/ 1981 building standards.
• Kizo Hisamoto (Moyor of Kobe) said response was “quick”–> regained full pop in 2004, and ppl in temporary housingwere able to leave by 2005.
• Attention focused on the large numbers of solitary elderly survivors who eended up dying of illnesses or accidents when living in temporary housing units. –> >1000 ppl died.

Economic : subsidies have been introduced to encourage homeowners to make homes quakeproof –> public awareness of the NEED to make homes quake proof is low.

Question 32

Give an socio - economic response regardingemployment.

Answer 32

Months after the quake ,public services were restored along w/ the reopenign of the Hanshin expressway however, many ppl lost thier jobs and many companies and factories and businesses had not returned leaving ppl unemployed.

Whilst the socio economic character of Japan allowed renovation and rebuilding to occur quickly, many ppl are emplyed in the service industry and thus lost jobs

Question 33

Why, 11 yrs after the quake are 95k ppl still living in temporary homes?

Answer 33

• They were not offered permanent homes from the govt and those w/o insurance recienvedf no money to rebuild their lives.
  The govt was not that willing to help individuals.

Question 34

Response : what did city planners doing in response to the quake?

Answer 34

They rezoned the city so that there were new regulations for building in place and they rebuilt the city so that there was more open space –> will help to reduce the impact of earthquakes as it reduces built envi + infrast.

Question 35

What is K- Tec ?

Answer 35

Kobe Techincal Experts CO operative Association for Disaster Prevention.

They ar ea network of 18 ppl, incl retired officialsm who hold regular meetings – > mainly convey stores about great hanshin eq to youth , research the risk management + natural disaster.
By sharing the story of the Great Hanshin EQ to younger officials and generations –> pass on DNA of KOBE –> aims to better edcate + protect ppl and thus build community resilience so that when disaster strikes, ppl can “protect their own lives”

Question 36

WHat is an economic measure/response put in place by the govt ?

Answer 36

They spent $6bn on rebuilding docks.

Question 37

what are some political measures/responses put in place by govt + community?

Answer 37

• Tighter buildign regulations
• Revised disaster response –> as a result in next EQ,CHetsu eq, only 68ppl died).
• New disaster strategies and revised building regulations may mitigate effects from future hazards
• Kobe mayor emphaisises importance of passing down the expereience gained from the 1995 Hanshin EQ to future generations as 44% of city pop and 46% of municpial govt workers had NO 1st hand expereince w/ anearthquake since 1995.

Question 38

what are some social measures/responses put in place by govt + community?

Answer 38

• Education : disaster prevention and volunteerism day
• Overall, the Great Hashin earthquake showed locals how vulnerable they are to EQ hazards → attitude shift → encouragement of community responses and resilience rather than state responsibility
• BOKOMI strategy implemented in Kobe ( Disaster - Safe Welfare Community) → carry out Disaster education in Schools i.e. evacuation plans, earthquake drills etc. The members provide disaster prevention training and drills, first aid seminars, arson prevention patrol, and provision of useful materials and equipment. Also work with the community to prepare a safety map.
• Machizukuri → the citizens and residents of Kobe took ownership of city planning to rebuild it.
• 80% of the rescue activities was done by the hands of the citizens –> the city officlas (ie 41%) went to work organising relief activities (ie aid, how to help etc)

Question 39

In what 3 ways was community feeling and sense of community implemented after the quake ?

Answer 39

• Infiorate Kobe project ,–> started in the spring 3 yrs after the quake → ppl wanted to decorate the affected city beautifully + create a link b/w citizens by making something together as a community → ppl drew pictures using flowers on streets + in plazas.
• Bamboo lanterns were lit up over the Higashi Yuenchi Park on Jan 17 in a vigil –> “Gathering of the Great hanshin Awaji Earthquake” on Jan 17. → this initiative was started by citizens for citizens.
• Local residents of different ethnic groups in Kobe began to work together ie the Vietnamese, Koerean, Philipino immigrants → had to work togehter to try and rebuild homes, clear rubble. Before that places that were “multicultural” ie Nagata ward of Kobe which was one of worst hit → the radio station broadcasted in multiple languages connected loal residents to gether.