QUAKE-ROCKED VALLEY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 25 July 1929, Page 6

QUAKE-ROCKED VALLEY.

WOMEN STILL REMAIN

MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR

Amidst the havoc and ruin brought by repeated earthquakes and in spite of warnings to leave, five women have remained in Tulaki Valley, in the Murchison district, on the West Coast, and arc trying to ‘‘keep smiling.” A letter from one of them has been handed to the Christhurch “Stair,” and it tells a. tale of the terrible conditions there and of the indomitable ■spirit that has buoyed them up. The letter, which is dated July 4, reads:

“We are shut in here and do not know when we will be able to get out. We are all alive and well and have not left our home. Forty-nine people', mostly women and children, left lieire last Monday week. Two bo-ys managed to get to Murchison the day before (Sunday) and as soon n;g they got there they were told that all the tut aid -people had ito be in Murchison by noon on Monday, as they expected a big slip to come down and block the Owen, the last means of getting away from Murchison. They said: that everyone in Murchison was leaving and that wo had to come too. They gave the boys a letter to bring out, and the people here* held a meeting and decided to leave in small parties at 8 o’clock on Monday morning. It rained heavily all Sunday night, and was very wet and cold on Monday morning. A-s we live bv ourselves two miles and a. half from Tuta.ki, and we are not on the telephone, I told Bert to take the car and go to the nearest homestead-, which is about a. mil© away, and ring the people and see if they were going. They said “No.” I felt that I would rather stay at home and take- the risk than move out, but J. did not want to bo the only woman left to worry the men if they had to tramp over the hills land find a way out.

“Some time after a man came and asked if Bert and George had gone to Tutaki. as they- were- ail going out. He said that the- four women up the road had decided to stay', so I said that I would stay. too. “We had no means of hearing a,bout anything, being absolutely isolated, and we are still so. Two or three men will try to, mako tlieir way over the falling rocks and slips, but no food can come through. Bert and some other men have decided to try and get through to-morrow with our mail. The men have been busy clearing slips off tire road nearly ever since the first big earthquake. The biggest slip came down within a quarter of a mile of our house, .and one nearly blocked the river. The men worked all the first week and had cleared up most of the slips when down came another on the other si'le of the house.

“We got in our car and went for a ride around. Braeburn to see the either slips. The 'havoc is simply awful, and 'it is a. wonder that- we are stills alive. We are still having some quite big shakes and explosions. Sometimes it seems as if a big cannon is just outside- the door, and we keep hearing awful bangß'. “T did not- sleep at all the first- week and my eyes used to run -all day, and when I closed them would- stick -shut. “A number of the men went all around the valley® and got- the people out. They -had ia- hard time- and used to come back absolutely exhausted with climbing over slides. “After the- big ’quake everything in the house was out of place. In the pantry, jam, pickles and preserves had all become mixed over the floor and there is scarcely a-ny china- left unbroken. "We had two more big shakes on the Sunday morning. We have had three shocks to-night, but no more explosions. Somip nights we have- had ti'iUfider, hail, and -snow as well ais explosions and ’quakes. However, we all have a. lot to be thankful for and we do our best to keep smiling.”