A Study on the Occurrence Mechanism of Human Casualty in Nishinomiya City due to the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake

Abstract

In order to reduce human casualties and to set up a correct estimation of death caused by earthquake, it is important to make clear the related factors effecting human casualty. This study focused on Nishinomiya City, which was one of the most heavily damaged city in the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster and a construction of age and sex of the dead is investigated. The investigations prompted two conclusions: (1) The distribution of the earthquake mortality rate of the under-50-year-old age group exhibits a constant occurrence pattern of Weibull distribution, and that of the over-50-year-old age group exhibits an increasing occurrence pattern. (2) The high ratio of the aged living in relatively old houses is one of the reasons resulting in the higher mortality rate of the aged than that of the young.