Newspaper Article 1931 – Refugees Leave Stricken City

1931   Refugees Leave Stricken City

SPECIAL REPORTER By wireless from H.M.S. Veronica

NAPIER, February 5, 1931

AN indescribable scene is occurring on the main road leading out of Napier. Refugees are pouring out of the stricken town in thousands. The road is choked with cars, lorries, motorcycles and ambulances; it resembles nothing so much as a French pave in wartime crowded with transport columns and refugees.

Half the population has fled and every fresh quake sends more frightened townspeople southward. Hundreds of houses are locked up and deserted, their occupants abandoning all their belongings with the exception of their clothes.

A harrowing sight is the stream of ambulances and commandeered Red Cross cars loaded with injured, whose appearance is pitiable. Great fissures which opened up in the road between Napier and Te Aute have to be negotiated with great care to ease the pain of the wounded.

Perambulators, dogs, cats and parrots in cages are among the personal possessions of the refugees. Many women are completely unnerved, and a repetition of the minor shocks, 49 of which were counted last night, emphasises the wisdom of effecting their speedy evacuation.

An inspiring example of devotion to duty under stirring circumstances was that of Dr A. D. S. Whyte, of Hastings, who worked in the operating room for hours after he knew that his daughter had been killed. Miss Whyte was having her hair dressed when the building collapsed and she was buried under tons of bricks.

The toll is mounting. Early this morning nearly 200 bodies had been buried or awaited burial. Eight bodies have been recovered from the Napier Technical College. Rescue parties from the warships, assisted by the police, are still excavating the ruins.

Half-demented women are to be seen coming to the police station to give vague particulars of where some relative was last seen.

It is pathetic to pass the new nurses’ home, now a heap of brick and mortar, destroyed as if it had been struck by shellfire. Eight bodies were recovered there yesterday. Today, on the grass in front of the hospital, carpenters are making coffins.

Photo caption – Residents of Napier leave their homes while destruction caused by the earthquake continues. The death roll was 251.