Kobe stands with Noto area on 29th anniversary of Great Hanshin Earthquake

We had just sold our property in Kobe and moved out of Hyogo. At 5:46 am my bed shook and I heard a scream from the other room. Hard to forget these things.

It must be terrible right now for the people of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa, such uncertainty about their future.

Never forget the scenes of the expressway that fell over on it's side, and the fire and smoke coming from all over the city.

Have to say, over the past 30 years, and thanks in a large part to the complaints of the people in the wake of the poor government response after this earthquake, the authorities have gotten better at responding to disasters like this.

It's not perfect, and there is still a ways to go, but it has gotten light years better.

People's consciousness about being prepared has risen a ton since this and other earthquakes too!

There was nothing GREAT about it

Japan should have its own version of the US’s Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA

I’ve lived in Ishikawa prefecture for 35 years I remember the Kobe quake you could feel it here. I also remember one year prior (to the day Jan. 17’th) the Northridge quake in California happened. A section of the 10 freeway collapsed killing a bunch of people. The news over here was going on and on about “how that could never happen in Japan because we know how to build roads“.. Then the Kobe earthquake happened and a section of tollway collapsed, killing a bunch of people. I remember thinking “but I thought that could never happen in Japan because you know how to build roads” I remember thinking what sad irony.