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Historic earthquakes

In the Napier earthquake

‘Then the world collapsed, or exploded. I knew not what was happening as I had never experienced an earthquake. Where grandad had been resting a minute before, a huge wardrobe crashed down. The noise of chimney bricks smashing onto the roof was alarming.’ Donald Locke remembers the Napier earthquake of 1931.

For people who lived through the Napier earthquake of 3 February 1931, the moment the big shake arrived became indelibly sketched on the memory. But for most people the quake was only the beginning. There followed days of looking after the injured, dealing with rubble and sometimes fire, and long nights of personal anxiety. Aftershocks continued for weeks.

We invited people from around New Zealand to send in their memories of the earthquake. Here is a selection.

A mother’s story

Eleanor Kay, a mother of three, wrote to her family about the traumatic events.

A rush to the playground

Norma Wing’s familiar primary school became a place of terror.

Long way home

Ray Copland came to consciousness alone in the playground of ‘a ghost school’.

On the farm

Out at Fern Hill, the Napier earthquake was as frightening as for those in town.

• Earthquakes in Māori tradition

• The 1848 Marlborough earthquake

• The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake

• The 1888 North Canterbury earthquake

• The 1929 Arthur’s Pass and Murchison earthquakes

• The 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake

• In the Napier earthquake

• Rebuilding Napier

• The 1942 Wairarapa earthquakes

• The 1968 Īnangahua earthquake

• The 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake

• Earthquakes since 1942