The first death in Dannevirke occurred on November 11. He was a visitor to the town and was quite typical of many of those who followed him. He was young (31), fit (a Hawke's Bay rugby and cricket representative) and left behind a wife and young family.
By November 13 Dannevirke was thoroughly in the grip of the flu. Many businesses had closed, others were operating with skeleton staff, the sole remaining doctor went down and three deaths were notified.
The community responded in typical fashion.
The Celebration Committee, formed to organise activities when the end of the war with Germany was announced, promptly turned itself into a relief committee.
All peace celebrations were postponed and on the recommendation of Miss Hopper, the matron, an urgent meeting of the Dannevirke Borough Council, Dannevirke County Council and the Waipawa Hospital Board was organised to arrange temporary hospital accommodation and organise relief.
Miss Hopper's statement at this meeting was dramatic and underlined the need for rapid action.
She had virtually no staff untouched at the hospital; the accommodation was completely inadequate; all the doctors in the town were now out of action and there were many very serious cases.
Some young people in the town were going days without being washed or getting food and there was an urgent need to centralise care so that some help at lest could be provided. The response was immediate.
A Visiting Committee (the Men's Committee) was formed. Its job was to visit every household in town to ascertain their needs and provide what assistance they could.
The Women's Committee established a food depot in the Drill Hall.
Appeals were made for people to donate food such as milk, butter, eggs and vegetables and within days of it being suggested, an inhalation chamber was erected in Svenson Brothers' garage in High St.
This consisted of a sealed room into which a spray of vapour containing sulphate of zinc was released.
Groups of people would spend 10 minutes in the chamber "after which the most tenacious of germs should have been exterminated".
People desperate to avoid the flu flocked in. In the first three days over 3600 visits were made and the newspaper exhorted people to do their duty and visit the chamber daily.
Although those suffering from the flu were not meant to attend it seems probable that the only effect of the chamber, and the consequent coming together of people, was to assist the rapid spread of the epidemic.
Because all the doctors were out of action there was a desperate and urgent need to centralise care of the seriously ill at the hospital.
This was fine in principle, but the hospital could only accommodate a maximum of 50 people and there were already many more serious cases than that.
This was what the town's fighting morale and sheer ability to get things done, was best displayed.
The need for extra hospital accommodation was first recognised on the evening of November 14.
At 5pm that night the manager of the Dannevirke Woodware Company was contacted, and his aid enlisted. He in turn contacted others in the building industry and at 7am the next morning the first load of timber was delivered to the site.
At 8.30am work commenced on building a new temporary ward.
So many new cases of illness had been reported in the night that the planned building was too small, and a decision was made to double its size. The master builders, their workers and the carriers worked with desperate speed all day until late in the evening.
Early next morning they were back at work and by half past six that evening the completed 120' x 120' ward was handed over ready for occupation. Even the gas had been laid on.
It was a triumph and was probably responsible for saving many lives.
Tomorrow - Part 2: How the town dealt with a medical staff crisis.
This is an excerpt from the book Dannevirke: The Early Years regarding the flu epidemic of 1918. At the time the town's population was 3000. It was at that time the 20th largest town in New Zealand.
