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Damage was recorded over a 100-kilometer radius from the epicenter, including the cities of Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto, but Kobe and its immediate region were the areas most severely affected. Damage was particularly severe in central Kobe, in an area roughly 5 kilometers by 20 kilometers parallel to the Port of Kobe. This coastal area is composed primarily of soft alluvial soils and artificial fills. Severe damage extended well northeast and east of Kobe into the outskirts of Osaka and its port. .
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Left: Collapsed portion of the Hanshin Expressway. .
Right: Search party investigating a collapsed residential wood-frame building, Nada Ward. .
Our experience with many past earthquakes in developed, industrial areas is that the media, particularly television, can present an exaggerated image of the damage by concentrating on the few spectacular collapses that occurred. The actual damage in Kobe and the surrounding region, however, was much worse than the media could convey, because it is very difficult to show more than local damage at one time. For example, images of the main, 550-meter-long collapsed section of Kobe's elevated Hanshin Expressway were ever-present throughout the media, but that collapse was only a small fraction of the losses to the area's highway system. .
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Self-defense troops performing a search and rescue operation at a collapse site. .
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Left: Many streets were blocked by collapsed buildings, hindering emergency response. .
Right: This man is hauling water. Nine days after the earthquake, 367,000 households were still without water. .
Central Kobe, according to many older residents and our investigators, presented the image of a war zone, with a large percentage of both commercial and residential buildings destroyed. .
All of this happened in about 20 seconds.