Effects of Earthquakes on a City

By Yurie Ikegami

When earthquakes occurred in a city, people around the city suffer from a lot of disasters that are effects of earthquakes. For example, we had problems of stopping of traffic, lack of food and water, stopping of supply of energy when Hanshin Awaji Earthquake occurred in Japan. Due to the earthquake, numberless people suffered and died, and it was a terrible memory for Japanese, so we have to recognize what will happen as the effects of earthquakes and know the way to prepare for such a situation. Therefore, I’ll talk about the effects of earthquakes: ruin of traffic, lack of food and water, stopping of supplying of energy.

For the first effect, almost all of the traffic in the city that is influenced by the earthquake will stop. People can’t use cars and buses because the roads and highways will be broken. Trains will be stopped because the supply of electricity will be stopped. Because of the same reason, we also can’t use planes. All of them are because of the shock of the earthquake. If all transportation is stopped, we can’t go to work, school, and see our family and friends who are worrying about our safety. Therefore, we have to remember we can’t use any transportation when an earthquake occurs around our city.

For the second effect, people will lack food and water that they need. As I mentioned for the first effect, traffic and transportation will be stopped because of the shock of the earthquake, so the city will be isolated from any other cities around it. People can’t order any food from other cities. In other words, they will not have the way to carry food from other places. People will also lack water. The water department will not work when an earthquake occurs because we will have no electricity. Water pipes might be broken. People will be forced to save water as much as they can. However, even if people save a lot of water, they will lack water to live. If people lack food and water, they will suffer from starvation. Therefore, we should know that we will lack food and water when we face a big earthquake.

For the third reason, earthquakes may cause the stopping of every energy supply. Earthquakes destroy not only the road but also gas pipes under the road. It may be a cause of fire accidents because gas in the air easily catches fire. Earthquakes also make electricity stop because people can’t work when earthquakes occur, so the electricity company doesn’t work. People will lack oil, too. We can’t use any transportation, so oil tractor can’t come to supply oil. When all the oil in the oil container in the city is gone, we will lack oil. If we lack such energy, we won’t able to warm up the room and cook food. Actually, when Hanshin- Awaji earthquake occurred, it was in winter and people suffered from the cold. Therefore, we should know when earthquakes occur, we will lack all kinds of energy.

In conclusion, we can prepare some things for the effects of earthquakes. For example, we can prepare some nonperishable food that we can eat without cooking and lots of bottled water. For the other idea, we can have a portable gas ring to cook without the supply of gas or electricity. We can also prepare a few tanks of kerosene to avoid suffering from cold. You can think of your own idea to save yourself when earthquakes occur. For thinking how to save yourself from these problems, you should remember that we have problems of the stopping of traffic, lack of food and water, stopping of supply of energy as the effects of earthquakes.