"The other thing was that it went on for so long."
Roach's mezzanine floor collapsed, the outer walls disintegrated and the roof fell on those inside the building. Seventeen people were killed - the most deaths in any single building in Hawke's Bay during the earthquake.
His sister, who was about 9, and one of his cousins were across the road at a hairdressers at the time and both died. The memory still brings a tear to his eye.
"It was very sad.
"We went home to our house on Market St...my mother was crying, I didn't understand why."
Mr Whyte went to the Hastings commemoration each year to mark the anniversary and also to catch up with others who went through the tragedy, he said.
Nola (Betty) Manley, 96, was a nine-year-old at Havelock North Primary School when the building shook and all the students rushed outside.
"One of the boys got a cut on his head because of the chimney coming down," she said.
"I think we were very frightened."
The principal told the students to go home and let their parents know they were safe and they would reconvene at school the next morning, however, this didn't happen due to the extent of the devastation.
"We lived in a tent for I don't know how long, the army provided them."
The oldest survivor at yesterday's afternoon tea, 101-year-old Joyce Le Comte, received flowers and cut the cake during the ceremony.
It was her first time being the oldest and she did not expect to receive such recognition, Mrs Le Comte said.
It was her first day of the second year of Hastings High School with her twin sister when the earthquake struck.
They had recently been given bikes and had to cycle back home to Pakipaki across the new concrete bridge at Longlands.
However, when they came to the bridge it had shattered and they struggled to drag their bikes over the mess to get home, she said.
"Dad was just about ready to try to get a ride to come to look for us when we arrived home.
"It was a real tragedy, we lived out in the country and we didn't really know what was going on."
Rachel Lisette, was three at the time, and lived at Putorino near the epicentre.
"I can remember it was very dusty and noisy, I think we were isolated for six weeks."
Ninety-nine-year-old Irene Earnshaw started her first day of Napier Technical College when the building collapsed.
"I was only a Tech girl for two hours then the earthquake hit.
"I was very ill after the earthquake, I had huge heat spots and vomited for two days. The doctor said it was a reaction to the whole thing.
Five members of her family, including herself, were sent to Dannevirke for about five weeks.
They were at the Dannevirke Drill Hall waiting for a family to take them with many others but because there was five of them they were one of the last to go.
"Finally an elderly gentleman said he would take us."
The man had to send his two eldest children to stay with relatives so they could all fit in the three-bedroom house with his two youngest children.
