On 3 February 1931, New Zealand’s deadliest earthquake devastated the cities of Napier and Hastings, Hawke’s Bay. At least 256 people died in the magnitude 7.8 earthquake: 161 in Napier, 93 in Hastings, and two in Wairoa. Many thousands more required medical treatment.
At 10.47am on 3 February 1931, a violent shock, followed closely by a second, rocked Hawke’s Bay for almost three minutes. A tanker at sea felt a violent vibration, and the seamen on board looked to the shore to see Napier covered by a cloud of rising dust.
The HMS Veronica had just tied up in Napier’s inner harbour when the earthquake hit. Captain Morgan at first thought there had been an explosion on board, but then saw the wharf twisting, and beyond it houses and other buildings crumpling to the ground.
Dust rose in clouds from the shattered buildings, making it difficult for people to breathe, and huge splits in the roads appeared.
Panic-stricken, people ran down to the beaches where they hoped to be safe. As the water in the bay receded with the rising of the land, many thought that a tsunami was on the way, but this was not the case.
The nurses’ home in Napier, built only a year before, collapsed, killing 12 of the nurses. A rest home was destroyed and 14 elderly men who lived there were killed. The Napier Boy’s High School assembly hall was severely damaged, but fortunately all of the boys had left the building. However, at Napier Technical College ten boys and two teachers died when a room collapsed on them.
The courtroom became the morgue where bodies were laid out to be identified by relatives.
Emergency hospitals were set up, but the doctors and nurses were limited in what they could do to help the injured because of a lack of medical supplies. Back-up medical teams were sent from Auckland on board Navy ships, and from Wellington by train.
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