The January 17, 1995 Kobe Earthquake An EQE Summary Report, April 1995 Executive Summary execsumm/ex1-600.gifexecsumm/ex1-600.gif On the first anniversary of the moment magnitude (MW) 6.7 1994 Northridge Earthquake, Kobe, Japan was struck by an MW6.9 earthquake. Both earthquakes struck in the pre-dawn hours, both ruptured beneath densely populated areas, and both caused horrible damage. Yet in Kobe there were many more deaths, financial losses dwarfed those in Northridge, and the amount of destroyed building …showed first 75 words of 9782 total…

…showed last 75 words of 9782 total…wide between Osaka Bay and the mountainous terrain on the north side of Kobe. Earthquake damage to highways, bridges, and rail systems left Kobe’s city streets as the only land access along this corridor, resulting in major congestion and greatly impeded relief efforts. Many of these surface streets were also unusable, blocked by debris from collapsed structures and damaged by ground settlement. Use of alternative road or rail lines added hours to normally short