Word: kobe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...country's worst earthquake in more than 70 years. The jolt that hit Kobe (pop. 1.5 million) just before dawn on Tuesday measured 7.2 on the Richter scale. The numbers alone told the chilling story: some 5,000 confirmed dead, 200 still missing, 25,000 injured, 300,000 homeless. As exhausted relief workers sifted through the rubble of what was once the country's second busiest port, survivors waited stoically in line for hours for a small bottle of water and a fist-size ball of rice. Offers of help came from all over the world, and as each...
...disaster on the scale of the Japan earthquake is a human tragedy, but for journalists it also becomes a mundane problem of logistics. When the first reports came in from Kobe last Tuesday, Tokyo bureau chief Edward Desmond dispatched reporter Irene Kunii to the scene. As the death toll rose by dozens an hour, Desmond packed extra sweaters and computer batteries and headed south himself, with photographer Greg Davis and interpreter Yoshihiko Asai. They could fly only as close as Osaka, where roads were clogged with relief-effort vehicles and people hoping to rescue family members...
From there it was a matter of improvisation--persuading someone to drive them toward Kobe, then stopping at the suburb of Nishinomiya, where damage was appalling. In Kobe, Kunii had to cover neighborhoods on foot, masking her mouth from smoke and fumes that burned the throat. One night she took shelter on the concrete floor of a school when the temperature was below freezing. Finally she was able to borrow a bicycle. The owner's stipulation: it must eventually be passed on to another needy person. When she left for Tokyo, Kunii bequeathed it to an arriving German correspondent, wishing...
...Western Japan is the deadliest to hit that country in 70 years. The death toll has now surpassed 4,000 and hundreds who are still missing are feared dead. By comparison, a 1928 quake in Fukui killed 3,769 people. Today, new fires flared in the city of Kobe as rescuers continued the monumental task of sifting through the wreckage for survivors. Six U.S. Air Force planes delivered 15,000 blankets to Kobe. The Japanese government has allocated $1 billion for earthquake relief and rebuilding. Each family that lost its head of household will get $50,000; compensation for other...
...powerful earthquake struck western Japan this afternoon, killing an estimated 75 people, injuring hundreds and trapping hundreds more in collapsed buildings. The quake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale and was followed by at least 17 aftershocks, hardest in the major port city of Kobe, where fires burned out of control, trains derailed and a major elevated expressway toppled, spilling about 50 vehicles onto the street below. The shaking, which began at 3:46 p.m. EST (5:46 a.m. in Japan) and lasted about 20 seconds, was also felt strongly 22 miles away in Osaka, Japan's second-largest...