Historic HB: Witness describes aftermath of earthquake

An injured person is transferred on 6 February 1931 onto the first relief train to leave Napier after the disastrous 3 February earthquake. Credit: Liz Rea Collection

"When I look back at it all it seems like a blurred cinematograph film of wrecked buildings, crying children, smoke, piles of bricks, bandaged heads, hurrying motor cars, despair and desolation.

"The cars going south were in flight. There is no other word for it. They were crowded with men, women, and children, bags, bundles, perambulators [baby prams] – almost everything.

"One in nearly every car wore bandages, and on all their faces was a look I shall never forget, a fixed, grim stare of utter tragedy, showing only one wish, to get away with all speed from the dreadful place where all their hopes had crashed in ruin."

This was a description from a person who had flown into the Longlands aerodrome and then chartered a car to go into Hastings to review the aftermath of the February 3, 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.

While hundreds were leaving Hawke's Bay, hundreds of vehicles would flood into Hawke's Bay from the south, bringing food and supplies.

Many worried people, such as Feilding men Albert Svendsen and Fred Salter, would "motor" to Hastings to check on their relatives – from whom they had not heard a thing. Albert's family had gathered around the radio listening for fragments of news about the earthquake – "What worried us was the fact that not a single word was said about Hastings where all our relations were … "

Albert and Fred would arrive in Hastings on the morning of February 4, and on their journey noticed nothing unusual about the landscape until they were about 30km from Waipukurau, seeing houses' brick chimneys all collapsed.

By the time they had reached Hastings they could see great cracks over the roads that extended over fields and up hills.

Fortunately, all of Albert and Fred's relatives were safe "and not even scratched".

Even so, "We listened for a good half hour almost spellbound at the terrifying tales of their experiences. The quaking was so great that no one could stand up."

(When I interviewed 20 years ago many who worked in Hastings and Napier on the day of the earthquake, they reported also being thrown to the ground or holding on to other people as if being tossed around on a ship in rough seas.) Albert and Fred would offer valuable assistance to the earthquake relief in Hastings.

The Hastings racecourse had been set up as an emergency hospital and Albert's cousin Ada and her sister Alice were assisting there.

Albert went to visit the hospital and while there met Ada's husband Dave – an electrician, who was sworn in as a special policeman to guard against looters but was trying to solve a problem at the racecourse – they had no electric lights due to not having power.

Albert was also an electrician, and together with Dave, after receiving permission to do so, they set off to the Hastings central business district in a lorry (truck) with a jack and other tools to salvage an engine and dynamo Dave had seen in a shop, which would provide enough energy for lights. By jacking up some beams, cutting a door in half and throwing aside wrecked radio sets, they retrieved the dynamo and took it to the racecourse.

As they began to install the dynamo, the men were told the Hastings electrical powerhouse (now the Opera House Kitchen in Eastbourne St) had restored power. While Albert and Dave were disconnecting the dynamo wires a large quake aftershock occurred, knocking Albert off a ladder on the roof of what is the Cheval room at the racecourse and onto the ground (fortunately not injured). This large shake had once again put the power out.

The men then reconnected the dynamo, so the temporary hospital had power for lights that night.

Michael Fowler

While Albert Svenson and Fred Salter's families escaped without any death or injury, most families weren't so lucky.

There were hundreds injured and the most serious cases (referred to as "cot cases") were evacuated from the temporary hospitals in Hastings and Napier to Waipukurau by lorry the day after the earthquake and would be looked after there until being transported to other hospitals.

Damage was sustained to the railway lines, and the closest a train could get to Waipukurau - while railway gangs furiously worked on repairs - was Ormondville.

On the morning of February 5, ambulances ferried the injured from Waipukurau to Ormondville, where a train from Trentham was waiting to take them to Palmerston North and Wellington. By that afternoon the railway had been restored to Waipukurau, and another train made its way there to collect injured people and refugees for Palmerston North and Wellington.

Evacuations of Napier families numbering around 1000 people began on February 4 (although men were supposed to stay behind to help, those wanting to be with their families were not stopped from leaving), mostly by vehicles from the Palmerston North and Wellington Automobile Associations.

When the railway line to Napier was restored on February 6, trains over the next few days took thousands of evacuees to Palmerston North (where the racecourse at Awapuni and showgrounds accommodated them in tents). No food was needed to be purchased as the people of the Manawatu brought fruit, meat, vegetables – and cake – to the refugee camps. These people would later be billeted in other towns.

It is thought about 9000 Napier people (population 16,000) and 2000 Hastings people (population 13,000) were evacuated to areas outside Hawke's Bay.

The hundreds of injured were also put into hospitals throughout the North Island – and Lord Bledisloe, Governor-General of New Zealand at that time, visited all of the hospitals.

About two weeks after the earthquake, Napier's infrastructure (power, sewerage etc) had been restored enough to allow refugees to return (Hastings' was restored in a matter of days) with the bulk returning by March. Free railway passes were issued for the return. An urgent request was made earlier in February for men to return to assist with the clean-up.

Some evacuees, however, decided the billeting situation was quite to their taste. During April authorities told them to return to Hawke's Bay, and to those providing accommodation to them to stop doing so by April 28 as no relief would be paid for their stay, and free transport back to Hawke' s Bay for the evacuees would be withdrawn.

The last few then began to trickle back – and would see the rebuild of their towns in progress, and marvel at the designs and colours of the new buildings.

• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory