Fires fed by ruptured gas maines raged out of control in the chill winter wind: in many neighborhoods, firefighters were unable to douse the flames because of damage to the city water system. Office buildings lay like crumbling cardboard boxes. Some 50,000 buildings were destroyed and early estimates of property damage ranged from $30 billion.
A few rescue squads combed the rubble for survivors. But other troops and firefighters were trapped in hopelessly snarled traffic, and relief supplies were scarce. Survivors clutching kettles waited, zombielike, in line for what little water there was. The quake disabled much of Kobe’s municipal water system; some desperate residents scraped dirty liquid from the ground under ruptured pipes. Those who could ferry the injured and the elderly to safety. As complaints about the government’s relief efforts rose, one Kobe official said: “I’ve never felt so powerless in my life.”
