Kobe Disaster Free Essay Example

For centuries, mother nature’s cycle has been a mixture of prosperity and destruction. From wildfires to rainstorms on deserts, humans have witnessed the varying degrees of nature’s course. Despite what is depicted in the media, natural disasters are more likely to destroy the Earth than Man-made disasters. Man-made disasters typically affect people from a societal aspect. Natural disasters could cost up to 5 billion dollars in repairing damages to homes, streets, working facilities, and schools(Howard, Lisa S., John jennings).

Depending on the amount of damage caused by the disaster, it could take many long years to repair the area that was damaged. After a man-made disaster, people find ways to avoid this from occurring again and oftentimes prevent it from happening altogether. Unlike man-made disasters, there is no way of predicting when exactly a natural disaster will hit.

Port City in Japan was known for having some of the most high tech earthquake equipment and “earthquake proof buildings” as many thought worldwide.

The structure of the buildings in that area in Japan were made to withstand the strength of an earthquake. After the Kobe earthquake hit in 1995, many people were in left shock by how much devastation and damage the earthquake had left behind(Lessons of Kobe, Begley, Sharon and Donna Foote). Since the earthquake was so powerful researchers had to look back to see what could have caused this massive disaster. After much dedicated time, researcher Allan Lind, comes to a conclusion that  there is no specific cause behind it but, the important thing is to find ways to protect us from it(Weiss, Lois, “Kobe disaster”).

In January 17, 1995 an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit the off coast of port city in Japan, devastating the civilians and streets throughout the city.

This earthquake is known as “The Great Hanshin earthquake” or as some might call it “Kobe earthquake”. Although the earthquake was only twenty seconds, it turned one of Japan’s most modern cities into something unrecognizable as some might say. The damages from raging fires and collapsed buildings cost Japan twenty years of repairment including broken homes and casualties the people of Kobe faced(The end of the world, Howard, Lisa). As hundreds of homes collapsed, more than 270,000 families were left without a home all throughout the city of Kobe(Gilbert, Evelyn, Kobe control lessons)

Many researchers today assume since the Kobe earthquake was shallow in the ground, there were many splits in the Earth and that caused the shaking to intensify. All the older homes crumbled away, water mains cracked and fires broke out. More than 4,800 people died in the earthquake, most were crushed by the falling buildings. More than 20,000 people were injured and more than 270,000 people were made homeless due to the disaster. The total estimated damage goes up to 60 billion dollars which makes the Kobe quake the most expensive natural disaster in history(Kawamura, Susumu “Kobe engineering”). The shocking economic and human loss caused by The Great Hanshin earthquake “will be a classical case for emergency planning for years to come” says one of the Japan emergency officials.

Earth is more likely to be greatly affected by natural disasters because some of the damages caused by them can not be undone. Adding to this, damages caused by them can take up many years to repair them fully. This includes fallen buildings, broken homes, cracked streets and deaths following these disasters.(Killer Earthquake, Weekly events). There is not an official way of preventing earthquakes , although there are ways to prevent extreme damage from occurring during an earthquake. As Normile, Denis says in “A wake call from Kobe” , people have been using better materials to structure new buildings and are taking down older buildings that are too weak to withstand another possible earthquake. Man-made disasters may take huge tolls on Earth although nothing can compare to the damage that can not be undone by natural disasters.

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