Rescue Board
The Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 measured 7.2 on the Richter Scale and struck southern Japan at 5:46am JST.
Approximately 6,434 people lost their lives in the 20-second tremor. The local infrastructure was shattered as gas lines ignited, fuelled by the wooden construction material, and broken water mains hampered firefighters' efforts to extinguish the blazes. Ten spans of the Hanshin Expressway in three locations in Kobe and Nishinomiya were knocked over, blocking a link that carried 40% of the Osaka-Kobe road traffic. Half of the elevated expressway's piers were damaged along with most railways.
With the infrastructure out, it became necessary to transport large numbers of dead and wounded by hand. The means of conveying supplies were in far shorter supply than rescue equipment such as saws and ropes. Existing stretchers proved heavy and bulky to deal effectively with the disaster.
Enter Adachi Shiki Kogyo, a paper product manufacturer based in the city of Nagaoka, in Niigata-ken prefecture, who has been developing a series of Rescue Boards made from tough recycled paper that is flatpacked for compact storage. It's light enough to be dropped in bulk from helicopters and its simple construction and easily-understood graphic instructions allow for fail-safe use by members of the public during the confusion in an emergency situation.
