January 16, 1996
Web posted at: 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT)
From Correspondent May Lee
KOBE, Japan (CNN) -- Twenty seconds was all it took for a 7.2 magnitude earthquake to kill thousands of people and devastate the Japanese port city of Kobe. Wednesday, January 17, marks the first anniversary of that natural disaster (635K QuickTime movie) .
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In all, about 6,300 people died and hundreds of thousands of homes were flattened or reduced to ashes by fire. Long stretches of highway toppled to the ground, and tens of thousands of stunned survivors crowded into shelters.
A year later, Kobe seems revitalized.
Rail lines that were badly crippled after the quake are once again loaded with passengers. Some damaged buildings have been repaired or razed, while others have been creatively altered. One downtown building had nine floors before the quake. Now, it's just three stories tall.
"Infrastructure, including water, electricity, gas and phone service, has been in full operation since July," said Hiroshi Tsuji of the Earthquake Reconstruction Headquarters. "Railways resumed in August. Almost all roads, except for the Hanshin Expressway, are reopened. The port of Kobe is 80 percent functional and industry is almost back to normal, so restoration is going quicker than expected."
Nagata Ward is one area where recovery has been painfully slow. The area was destroyed by the quake and the subsequent fires that burned out of control. Although the rubble and debris have long been removed, most of the lots remain empty.
A majority of the people who lived and worked there haven't come back. And for the small handful who have returned, it hasn't been easy. ( 119K AIFF sound or 119K WAV sound)
Small pre-fab buildings now dot the streets of Nagata Ward. Most of them belong to quake survivors who were forced to leave the shelters and had nowhere else to go.
"We have to rebuild our houses and lives on our own," said one man. "Each person has to take care of his own problems. There will be more hardships in the future."
Those who lost loved ones in the earthquake have had their own unique hardships.
One such person is Noriko Uegaki, 20, whose mother and two younger sisters were killed in the quake.
Noriko dressed in a traditional kimono recently to celebrate Coming of Age day. It was a special event she cannot share with her family, except through prayer.
Noriko said she misses her family. ( 128K AIFF sound or 128K WAV sound)
As she struggles to come to terms with death amid the lingering remains of the disaster, young children now play in the shadow of the same remains: The sprouts of new life are slowly growing out of the ashes.
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