(3)The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (5:46, January 17th, 1995 M 7.2)
Occurring along fault lines running through the big city, the disaster had fatal repercussions on the residential areas, especially among the wooden, tile-roofed houses orshop-home combined structures.
Concrete buildings were destroyed, and intermediate floors collapsed.
All the transportation lines (motorways, bridges, tunnels, railways...) and vital services (water, electricity, gas, telephone..) were considerably damaged: the cutting of water lines allowed fires to burn out the centre of the city.
