Sony Kumamoto sensor factory: first public footage of the 2016 earthquake
On April 16, 2016, disaster struck in Kumamoto in the Kyushu region of Japan. A series of earthquakes, including an unprecedented 7.0 mainshock struck beneath Kumamoto City where Sony`s sensor factory resides. The factory itself was a mere 20 kilometers from the earthquake`s epicenter. A foreshock (warning) of magnitude 6.2 came approximately two days earlier, which gave the factory time to evacuate; however, the damage to the carefully built, precision controlled and automated factory with clean rooms was devastating. Not to mention the impact on the lives of those in the region...
During a recent trip to the repaired Kumamoto factory, DPReview was afforded an inside look at the facility and a chance to meet the very people that keep one of the world`s largest sources of imaging sensors operational. We watched a video that showed the extent of the damages and repair efforts. Combined with a better of understanding of how the facility operates, we were able to appreciate just how extensive the destruction and repair processes were. We`ll get to that in the following slides, but have a look above at the public`s first look of footage from the facility during the earthquake, and the massive repair efforts that followed.
Massive impact
Before we dive more into the impact on Sony`s sensor factory itself, we`d be remiss to not mention the impact on the region. The foreshock and mainshock together claimed more than 50 lives, injured 3,000 others, forced more than 44,000 people to evacuate from their homes and left over 180,000 people seeking shelter in the days after the earthquake. The entire city of Kumamoto was left without water, flights were grounded, as was rail service due to a derailed train. A thousand buildings had been seriously damaged either directly by the earthquake or due to the resulting fires and landslides, and an entire hospital had to be eva ...
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