Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 17, 1995 TAG: 9501170157
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: OSAKA, JAPAN LENGTH: Medium
The earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2, was believed the most violent to have struck a densely populated urban area in Japan in at least two decades.
The quake devastated the city of Kobe, a major port of 1.4 million people 280 miles west of Tokyo - where the quake was barely felt.
The national police reported 439 deaths, 1,377 people injured and 583 missing.
The quake knocked trains off their tracks, collapsed elevated highways, tore down buildings and sparked hundreds of fires.
``I was terrified,'' said an old woman, holding her granddaughter, shown on Japanese television. ``All I could do was sit in terror.''
Trains were derailed by the force of the quake. Power was knocked out in some areas, and underground pipes burst, sending water gurgling over the ground.
Wrapped in bedding, people huddled in the streets of Kobe. Some were bleeding from cuts and scrapes; others wandered the streets, staring at the collapsed buildings.
The shaking lasted about 20 seconds. The jolt was strong enough to twist door frames, restricting escape from buildings.
More than four hours afterward, several fires burned out of control in Kobe, darkening the sky with a thick cloud of smoke. One fire appeared to cover at least six city blocks in a largely residential area.
The quake also was felt strongly in Osaka, Japan's second-largest city, but the most widespread damage was in and around Kobe.
The western city of Ashiya, a posh residential area between Kobe and Osaka, was said to have been devastated. Japan's public television, NHK, said up to 200 people were believed buried in rubble there.
Deaths also were reported on Awaji Island, near the epicenter.
The quake, which struck at 5:46 a.m. (3:46 p.m. EST Monday), was centered 121/2 miles under Awaji in the Inland Sea, the Central Meteorological Agency said. Part of the quake's destructive power was caused by the relative shallowness of its epicenter, quake watchers said.
Many people were trapped in their homes as the quake tore down buildings just before dawn. But the roads and trains were less full than they would have been at a later hour.
``If the earthquake had occurred a couple of hours later, it would have been a massive, chaotic disaster,'' said Yoshiaki Kawata of Kyoto University's Disaster Research Institute.
Ben Deeley, a U.S. businessman from the Philadelphia area in Kobe during the quake, told CNN that the television in the room where he was staying flew toward his bed, which moved about four feet.
``The building next to ours fell down on top of a car. ... The whole house must have picked up and moved about five feet,'' he said.
Sections of several elevated highways collapsed, including the Hanshin Highway, the major link between Osaka and Kobe. At the newly opened Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay, walkways broke.
More than a dozen aftershocks rattled the area in the three hours following the quake. More aftershocks were expected, adding to fire danger from broken gas mains.
The Cabinet was to hold an emergency meeting to discuss disaster measures. Defense Agency chief Tokuichiro Tamazawa said troops were being mobilized and dispatched to the quake zone.
A quake of magnitude 7 can cause widespread, heavy damage. No warning was issued for tsunami, or tidal waves caused by earthquakes. Tsunami are often generated by quakes in open water in the Pacific Ocean, but this one was centered in the Inland Sea, which is almost completely surrounded by land.
The country has been rattled by a series of strong quakes since Dec. 28, when a quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 jolted northern Japan.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB