Two Women Killed At Muriwai

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30841, 28 August 1965, Page 1

Two Women Killed At Muriwai

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 27. A woman and her daughter died and her husband and another daughter were injured when they were caught by hundreds of tons of earth from a slip which swept away three houses at Muriwai beach this afternoon.

Those killed were:— MRS I SOBEL CRANE, aged 48, and her daughter, MISS MARGARET MARIA CRANE, aged 18, student teacher, both of Paerata.

Ernest Arthur Crane, aged 50, a teacher at Wesley College, Paerata, and Christine Crane, aged 15, a schoolgirl, were admitted to Middlemore Hospital for observation. Both were suffering from concussion, shock, multiple abrasions and bruising. Mr Crane cracked several ribs. Their condition tonight was reported to be satisfactory.

Michael Sheehan, the 20-year-old boyfriend of the dead girl, Margaret Crane, had left the house only a matter of minutes before the avalanche to go for a run along the beach.

Mr Sheehan, a student teacher of 28 Prospect terrace, Pukekohe, said:

“I was running down the road and looked back to see if I could see the house. Suddenly there was a terrific crash and the house was completely obliterated. “I ran back up the road and saw Mr Crane’s arm groping in the air from a sea of mud. I rushed over and started digging him out. “I didn’t see any sign of the others.” Mr Sheehan said he had only left the house about two minutes before it was swallowed up by the slip. He and the Crane family had only arrived at Muriwai the day before to spend the August holidays at the beach The bodies of Mr Crane and Margaret Crane were recovered after about an hour of digging by 100 volunteers. Christine Crane was rescued by Mr K. J. Bla'-.e from beneath a pile of earth and timber.

Sergeant R. B. Stewart, of the Henderson police, said he was notified of the tragedy at 3.40 p.m.

“When I arrived with my men I found about 50 men digging feverishly for the bodies of the two missing women,” he said. “A tractor and a front-end loader were brought in to help.”

Police, local residents and men supplied by the Ministry of Works and the Forest Service dug furiously under the constant threat of being engulfed by further slips. “Pretty Grim” “The position was pretty grim at that stage,” said Sergeant Stewart. “Thousands of yards of earth cascaded from the 300foot cliff at the rear of Domain crescent. One house was completely buried and two more were smashed like match boxes.” One house on the lower side of the road was bodily lifted by the flood of boulders and mud and put down about 150 feet from its original foundations. A car and a mountainous heap of timber, rubble and earth were deposited on the back doorstep of Mr K. J. Blake, whose new house is also on the lower side of the road.

Mr Blake was sitting in his lounge reading the paper.

“I heard a terrible noise and thought an areoplane had crashed into the hill,” he said. “Then I saw boulders

bouncing past the window and my neighbour’s house borne along by the avalanche. “By the time I got to the back door it was all over. A huge pile of mud and timber and an overturned car towered immediately above me.

“I saw Christine Crane’s legs sticking out of the rubble and rushed over to help. Her head was lying in a drain. Another chap helped me to dig her out.” Dug Out Mr Blake then went to help Mr Sheehan dig out Mr Crane. “How my house stayed put I’ll never know,” he said. Mr Blake said he could hear a cat mewing from beneath a pile of earth and timber, but could not find it. Mr Blake and his wife, a retired couple, only recently moved to Muriwai. Their once smart little house was extensively damaged by the slip. Mrs R- Sorenson, of Domain crescent, was giving her two children, Kristen, aged eight, and Mark, aged two, their tea when the cliff fell in.

Their house was missed by the slip. “The noise was terrific,” said Mrs Sorenson, “and I thought it was an earthquake or a tornado.

“I told the children to get down on the floor and looked out the window to see the torrent of mud and a house being carried along with it.” Too Frightened She said she was too frightened to go outside because the ground was still moving. “All the power lines were down and were flashing and crackling,” she said. “I went outside with the two children and we ran for our lives shouting out for help.” Mrs Sorenson said when she left her house there was nobody in sight. The first person she saw was Mr Blake. “My first thought was to get the power shut off,” she said. “The children and I were bare-footed, jumping over the fallen power lines.” Mrs Sorenson telephoned the exchange from Mrs M. J. Wilton’s house and asked the operator to send a doctor and get the police.

As darkness fell and the heavy rain continued two smaller slips rumbled down the scarred cliff face.

Sergeant Stewart said all persons in the locality of the slip had been warned to vacate their houses as there was still danger from the loosened cliff.

He requested week-enders not to go to their baches for the next two days. “We can’t warn of the danger of this area too much,” he said.

Two of the damaged houses were unoccupied week-end baches.

Accommodation for persons in the emergency area was offered at the R.N.Z.A.F. base at Hobsonville and at the Pomaria road School.