Earthquake causes damage in N.I.

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32810, 10 January 1972, Page 1

Earthquake causes damage in N.I.

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, January 9.

Chimneys crashed on roofs, walls cracked, and a Te Aroha family narrowly escaped injury when the inside of their home buckled and collapsed about their ears during an earthquake which hit part of the North Island this morning.

The earthquake, which measured 5| to 5| on the Richter scale, sent people throughout the Waikato running from their homes at 9.33 a.m. as the ground rumbled and shook for about 10 seconds.

More than 30 chimneys toppled in the Te Aroha area, smashing tiled roofs and denting corrugated iron. Many residents spent the rest of the day pulling down unsafe chimneys. At a house on the Te Aroha-Matamata highway a boys aged two years and a half rushed to meet his grandfather who was driving a tractor up to the house. Seconds later a chimney

crashed on to the concrete path where young Shane Hammond had been playing. The centre of the house rose 6in and crashed back down, shattering the internal structure and tumbling two chimneys to the ground. No-one was injured. Two children, one five months old and the other 15 months, and three women were in the house at the time.

Wide-spread damage occurred only in Te Aroha, which seemed to be the epicentre of the quake, but crockery and vases fell from shelves in nearby towns. Aucklanders, who were on the fringe of the shaken area, felt the quake as a gentle vibration in which light bulbs swung and crockery rattled. An insurance agent in Te Aroha, Mr D. A. Towes, last night estimated damage at many thousands of dollars. He spent most of yesterday visiting damaged homes and

giving advice on how to remove cracked chimneys. With light tremors continuing in the Te Aroha-Morrins-ville area throughout yesterday afternoon and evening, he considered it best to demolish dangerous chimneys. The earthquake caused a power black-out for about 10 minutes over a wide area including Te Aroha, Morrinsville, part’of Matamata, Paeroa, Waihi, Thames and all of the Coromandel Peninsula. The cause was a failsafe mechanism which the earthquake triggered in the Electricity Department’s sub-sta-tion at Wajhou, west of Te Aroha. The device is designed to cut power out during violent shaking.