The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
Mood:  sad
Jan. 17, 1995, 5:46am:

Today is the 10th anniversary of this most disastrous day.

I have been reading about it in a magazine that was given to me.
Here's some stats: 7.2 on the Richter scale
Total lives lost: over 6,000
Injured: over 35,000
Destroyed homes: 171,000
Total value of damage 10 trillion yen.
13 kindergarten, 36 elementary school and 21 junior high kids lost their lives.
Phone and electrical service was restored by Jan. 31st.
Water came back on March 28th (can you imagine?)
Gas didn't come back on until April 11th (most cooking and heating is done with gas)
By the way, the apartment that i live in came down!

This was a rough time for this area. January weather is cold. I have experienced temperatures close to freezing lots of evenings in January with a wind chill and the dampness of the ocean air it is down right bone chilling. I can't imagine being camped out in a gym with nowhere else to go. The pictures are incredible and remind me of the Bay Area and LA quakes. Mother Nature makes me feel very humble.

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