Gerry Anderson, whose one-year contract as presenter expires at the end of next month, is at home in Northern Ireland, suffering from flu, and is not expected to host the show again. Instead the five-day-a-week slot is being renamed the Afternoon Shift and will be presented on different days by Laurie Taylor and Daire Brehan. Auntie yesterday finally conceded that its traditional audience knows best. In an announcement to lift many a Home Counties' heart, Radio 4 confirmed it was scrapping Anderson Country, the weekday afternoon programme which provoked unprecedented c riticism from listeners. Only in the morning will we find out what has happened to all the people we know here.". "During the day we were joined by a family whose home had been destroyed, and several former students who had fled high-rise blocks in the city centre."Darkness, cold and the unexpected restoration of electricity had lured people back inside last night, but they expected little sleep. "We have been ferrying in water from a spring, but there is not much food left," said Dr Miller.

"Tomorrow we will have to look for supplies."As I look out now, everything is very quiet and the fires seemed to have burned low. Nine of the students had arrived from Stirling University only last week."We tried to discourage people going into the city unless they could give help, but those who went down said things were very bad indeed," said Dr Miller. "All day police and military helicopters were flying to and fro, but there wasn't much they could do."With the area constantly shaken by aftershocks - Dr Miller had counted more than 20 - staff and students stayed outdoors all day, building bonfires to cook and stay warm in near-freezing weather. From their vantage-point, Dr Miller and his 30 postgraduates, half British, could see the city below being devoured by flames."There were about 10 huge fires, which gradually merged into one as we watched," the academic, 45, told the Independent. Books were cascading from shelves, furniture falling over and objects as heavy as refrigerators sliding around as though on a skating rink. "It took me several seconds to realise what was going on," said Dr Miller, dean of the Kobe Institute, "but I and all the students managed to get out unscathed. It was a miracle no one was hurt, when people a quarter of a mile away were killed." The institute, an outpost of St Catherine's College, Oxford, opened on a mountainside overlooking Kobe three years ago.

Michael Miller woke at quarter to six yesterday morning to find his room, high over the city of Kobe, "shaking like a jelly". Utility and construction companies soared in value yesterday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in anticipation of huge rebuilding contracts.The head of the Japanese government's advisory panel of seismologists warned yesterday of another earthquake, with a magnitude of 6 or more, striking the same area soon.. The Los Angeles earthquake caused billions of dollars ofdamage, and the repair bill for yesterday's earthquake is likely to be even higher. Electricity, gas, and water supplies, telephone and railway services were severed or disrupted.After the earthquake that struck Los Angeles exactly a year before, on 17 January 1994, many Japanese had congratulated themselves that their buildings and infrastructure were of superior standard. But an elevated motorway built in 1966 keeled over after supporting pillars snapped; modern high-rise buildings toppled; whole stretches of railway bedding for the elevated "shinkansen" bullet train lines fell away; and one floor of a hospital crumpled and disappeared. None the less, the disaster exposed the vulnerability of Japanese cities to earthquakes, especially along the "urban corridor" from Tokyo to Kobe on the Pacific coast.Most of the damage was to wooden houses and flimsy structures.