A new weapon in coming to grips with earthquakes.

Researchers have developed software that assesses the likely extent of damage from major earthquakes, thereby allowing the government to make snappier decisions about whether to dispatch rescue workers to affected areas.

A system that is in use in Japan has been expanded to cover other countries.

The research was triggered by the government's slow response to the Great Hanshin Earthquake of Jan. 17, 1995, that claimed in excess of 6,000 lives and leveled much of Kobe.

A revised version of the system has been developed for use overseas by the National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster.

On Jan. 12, 2010, a magnitude 7 earthquake caused extensive damage in Haiti.

However, members of the International Rescue Team-Japanese Fire Service were not dispatched because government functions in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince collapsed and no pertinent information was immediately available.

Japanese officials decided it would be pointless to mount rescue operations once 72 hours had passed as that is the time limit set by experts in estimating the likelihood of finding survivors.

The newly developed system can be used to assess how damage would spread in the Haitian capital if an earthquake of 7 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 hit the Carribean nation today. The simulation would show on a computer screen which areas in the capital had sustained the most structural damage.

The system first requires the accumulation of altitude data taken by space shuttles or aircraft. A numerical scale would be used to show which areas are susceptible to swaying during strong earthquakes