Hanshin Earthquake

Today marks the 12 anniversary of The Great Hanshin Earthquake. I remember hearing about it wondering if the Bartons and my other friends were ok. The principal at my forther school told me about it and had the TV on, he asked me if I wanted to call anyone and I got ahold of Bartons. At that point they had no idea of the distruction that had occured, becakuse they had no news. They only knew that bookcases and cupboards had all spilled out their contents on to the floor and were busy cleaning up.

Images like this one were all over the news. My friend Mr. Ohara whose office was in one of the hardest hit areas told me later that it was just a change in the wind that saved his building, from the fires that were raging through parts of the city.

I got to go to Kobe about a month after the earthquake and still most of the city was in ruins and I saw many buildings like this one below.

I even remember one building just laying over in the middle of the street. Now if you go to Kobe unless you know the Kobe before the earthquake you would never know that anything happened. I was a long slow and confused clean up effort with so many people left living in temporary housing years after it was over.

What is a little scarry is that they say that in the next 30 years Tokyo will be hit by a major eatrhquake. There are reports of how terrible it will be, gload to know that are school is supposed to hold up under a major earth quake, but who really knows till it happens. Hopefully the gov't will be ready to handle the crisis that will occur if we have a quake of a similar magnitude her.