Figure 1 - Eight months after the quake, most public spaces, such as this baseball field, hold temporary housing units. Individually and collectively, the community has been traumatized, but with so much to be done there hardly seems time to reflect and heal, only to work. The eight-month snapshot of Kobe's recovery reveals both remarkable achievement and substantial unmet need and work to be done. Gaps in the urban fabric include both the individual vacant spaces in the downtown where major buildings once stood, and entire neighborhoods once burned and now cleared away, looking like large-scale urban renewal projects. More than 20 million tons of rubble have been removed.
Residents share kitchen and bathroom facilities.
Although the shelters were officially closed in August, housing remains a significant problem. Makeshift shelters are pitched with tents or tarps. In some cases the refugees have used play equipment such as slides and climbing structures as the supporting framework for their shelter. With an estimated 125,000 dwelling units needing to be rebuilt, in a context of limited land and high costs, it is little wonder that the 40,000 temporary units now in place could not absorb the total need. Many people have relocated to other cities.