By far the most severe disaster of l995 was the earthquake in Kobe, Japan which claimed 6,000 lives , injured 30 000 and left 300 000 homeless. The immense human and material losses in Kobe were mainly due to the high population density, inadequate earthquake resistance in the case of older buildings and unfavourable geological conditions in certain areas. Total damage was established at 82.4 billion US Dollars. As earthquake insurance is relatively uncommon in Japan, insurance payments covered a mere 3% of total damage incurred. (Source: Swiss Re, Sigma no. 2/ 1996.)