 Image search results - "sannomiya" |
Since Jan. 2010 is the 15th anniversary of the Kobe earthquake that struck on Jan. 17, 1995, I decided to upload these photos for the first time. I visited Kobe 10 days after the killer quake struck. Had to take a hydrofoil from Osaka to reach Kobe.
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Kobe Port. Most of the people entering Kobe during this time were relatives and friends of Kobe residents, bringing relief goods.
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Distribution place for relief goods. Ten days after the earthquake, the initial fires, confusion, and pandemonium had subsided. It was pretty calm by then, but the damage was still visible.
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Kobe City Hall buckled at the middle floor.
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Near Kobe City Hall along Flower Road was this office building which had also collapsed at a middle floor.
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Santica building near Sannomiya Station had a middle floor crushed. As I walked around the devastation, I could see common ways in which the buildings collapsed. High rise buildings commonly collapsed on a middle floor.
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Kobe Shimbun newspaper offices near Sannomiya Station was in shambles.
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Expressway pylon broken.
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In front of Sannomiya Station is Sogo Dept. Store.
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Sogo Dept. Store cracked vertically in the middle. This building was later torn down and replaced with a new dept. store building.
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Cracked Sogo Dept. Store in Sannomiya.
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Employees are removing merchandise from Sogo Dept. Store.
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Shop shutters along Ikuta Road are tilted due to the crushing weight.
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Tilted buildings near Sannomiya Station. It took only 15 sec. to wreak all this damage.
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The building next to Washington Hotel scraped against the hotel as it fell.
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Damage to Sannomiya Station building.
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Sannomiya Station
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Hankyu Railways' Sannomiya Station being torn down.
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Nihon Seimei Bldg. collapsed at the middle.
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Nihon Seimei Bldg. collapsed at the middle, near Sannomiya Station. It's hard to imagine what would've happened if the quake struck during working hours with people working in this building.
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A mess inside a restaurant.
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Fallen clock which stopped at the time of the earthquake.
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No, my camera lens is not distorting this picture. That building is actually tilting a lot, but they still allowed traffic on the road below.
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Crushed car
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Store in shambles.
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Interesting contrast between buildings which fell and didn't fall.
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Amid the rubble of a collapsed building, a yakisoba stall sold yakisoba noodles.
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People eating yakisoba amid the rubble.
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Another common way in which buildings collapsed was the 1st floor giving way like this small hotel.
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The 1st floor is totally flattened.
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One hotel guest escaped by using bed sheets as a rope.
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Backstreet destruction.
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Sign saying they are okay.
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Vending machine
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Truck carrying relief goods.
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Boxes of food (biscuits).
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A building owner stands by her destroyed building.
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Crushed car
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In the Kitano area where there are many Western-style homes, the damage was not so apparent. But the interior sustained damage. None of the buildings collapsed though.
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Weathercock House, built in 1909, withstood the quake.
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Only the chimney broke off atop the Weathercock House. The inside is a different story.
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Water station
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Line for the bus headed for Ashiya Station.
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Bus for Ashiya Station, the furthest that trains could go at the time. Trains weren't running within Kobe.
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