Aftershock Triggers Memories of Terror for Kobe Residents

For a few seconds Saturday, Kobe residents relived the terror as an aftershock jarred highway overpasses and apartment buildings damaged by Japan’s devastating earthquake.

There were no immediate reports of new damage or injuries, but the 3.0-magnitude jolt was one of the largest aftershocks in the past 12 days, and it added new urgency to the enormous task of city wrecking crews.

“You get an aftershock of about 3 or 4 (magnitude) every day,” said Makoto Yahata, a construction worker living in Kobe City Hall. “Since many of the buildings are already damaged, an earthquake of 5 could bring them down.”

The Jan. 17 earthquake destroyed or severely damaged about 80,000 buildings. On Saturday, the streets bustled with men in hard hats tearing down the most dangerous buildings and repairing electrical and telephone lines.

Search crews found three more bodies Saturday morning, raising the death toll to 5,090. Twenty-nine people are missing.

The quake, which was measured by U.S. scientists as magnitude 6.8, left nearly 300,000 people homeless. Many of them are being housed temporarily in schools, government buildings and tent camps. Influenza has broken out in the crowded, chilly shelters.