Joe Bloggs

Rumble in the Urban Jungle

Aftershocks continue to rattle up in Hokkaido, but in the meantime I thought you might like to see some photos I took in Kobe a couple of days after the M7.8 strike in 1995. I went to see Martin (a lecturer of mine from Sheffield) who now lives in Kobe and I took as many photos of the destruction as my conscience allowed me.

Looking at them in pairs across the page, the first two show buildings with the ground floor totally flattened. In other words that is the first floor just above Martin ... the ground floor has gone! Look at the sign with 'Schweizer' on the photo on the right hand side. That is a baker's shop and the sign was above the door. It used to be a landmark for us to turn right when we visited Martin by car.

The next two show collapsed houses. Traditional Japanese roofs are usually heavy tiled affairs to prevent them being blown away in the event of a typhoon - a much more frequent hazard than earthquakes. Come a hard earthquake though ...

Finally, the two below are that of the bullet train track that runs near Martin's house. The photos above these probably give the indication that houses are not as structurally sound as they might be. However, seeing what it did to the heavily fortified bullet train tracks, you can understand that not many things are going to be left standing if the quake is big enough.

Click on the photos for enlarged views.