The Impact of Earthquakes

By Satomi Yanagi

In recent years, earthquakes have happened in Japan more than any other country, including China, Australia and so on. If earthquakes happen, people can’t avoid them. Because the destructive power is terrible, unfortunately, nature, structures and people suffer from earthquakes.

About two years ago, in China, a big earthquake happened. The most impressive scene was the mountain range that totally disappeared. The cliffs slid down and the trees were broken after that. It was terrible. We couldn’t see the beautiful mountain like before. We could only see rocks and earth. Many people got buried under the earth and died. In the case of Sumatra, a big wave called “Tsunami” came after the earthquake. People ran trying to escape that. However the speed of a tsunami was faster than they had imagined. Unfortunately the tsunami took away houses, cars, and human lives.

Second of all, structures are damaged from earthquakes. On January 17th, 1995, the Hanshin Awaji earthquake happened in Kansai region. During the earthquake, the air was very dry; as a result, fires happened in many places. Fire trucks tried to go there; however, roads were covered with debris. Moreover, many media vehicles disturbed fire trucks and people who ran away. Even if houses weren’t burned, they were seriously damaged. The roofs fell down, and furniture was destroyed.
The influence of earthquakes on people’s minds is the most important problem. People who lost their houses have to live at evacuation sites. At evacuation sites, they can’t sleep well because a lot of people live there so it is noisy and unsanitary; moreover, they don’t have enough space to take in a lot of casualties. After they live at there, someone goes to makeshift housing. Unfortunately, the majority of them to go there are elders. They have to live by themselves without enough money. In addition, dying alone becomes a social problem. Sometimes, they aren’t found until few weeks after they die.

Earthquakes take away everything. Even if people are saved, they might lose their family, house, or precious items. In Japan, houses which can change the power of earthquakes into heat energy have been invented. However the power of earthquakes is incalculable. If a big earthquake happens, we have no way to avoid it.