AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14936, 14 June 1919, Page 8

AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE.

.■''■"' SHAKEN tJKJS A LEAF. A resident of Haapai, vrriting to friends m Auckland, says : "Now I must tell you all about our great experience the other night, a tremendous ''earthquake followed by a tidal wave that I thought was going to wipe -us out altogether. We had finished, dinner, and I was lying down on my bed (it was May Ist), when all of a sudden I heard 1 a noise like approaching thunder, and then our little bit of an island (it's not a. mile wide) began to move. It was for all the world like as if sortie giant had picked it up by the end (dike a person would a bit of tape), and nad shaken it. ■It's the biggest 'c(uake they; have ever had here, pitch dark (210 to 8) when it jbegan, amf I thought the place would be broken ip pieces. It was a most awesome experience, the inky darkness, th© cries and y«Jls of the natives rose like a wail of lost souls, the scurrying for safety andf beating of cans by the natives (to keep the devils away) all combined toinake a. very exciting time. Aq t . njear as I could judge, the whole 'quakfe' lasted about two minutes from the timp it started to the time that the earth ceasVd to move. But for about 30 seconds the movement was terrific. "Ij" &etch a 'quake was to cccur m Auckland, thel^e would not be one stone Jeft upon another, The theory here is that, being Built, as it -were, otx coral reefS) is the reason wo don't break into emaLLpioces. V^ell, \fe settled down after that, and discussed matters, the older inhabitants predicting another 'quake, possibOy m an hour. or twq. I wenfi^ back home, and was having a quiet read, when, a great cry. arose. I. went outside expecting another shaking up/ and then I heard the roar of the sea on the reef. Onf manager' rushed .across and sang out to me : 'Look out, there is a tidal wave on us !' So we got the women and children! and 3co6ted for the highest point' above sea level (about 20 feet), as the place is very flat. • Then we went back to the beach. The place was m an uproar, natives yelling,. the sea roaring and rushing -up the beach on to, the -shore land, tearing fences and houses down, the crash of the wrecked boats as they were flung on to the shore up against the trees and against one- another; great big. stones w-eighing as much as me flung into the middle of the road. The Governor's house was > practically wrecked; it was most peculiar- to see the boats rushing out with, the tide, and then coming back with a tremendous pace, and being flung high 'and dry, but smashed. The lliwi, which is (or was) on the stocks, being repaired^ was lifted clean up, and came bang up against a cocoanut tree right on top of another boat, and broke it clean m. two, and never got a scratch itself, only a broken bowsprit. Altogether it made up one of the most exciting experiences I have ever been- through, because there was always a bit of doubt what _was. going to happen to us; because the seas looked a tremendous height, till they broke on the reef. We have had two or three little 'quakes since, but jwthing -much." ,