“LIKE LAST DAY”

Taranaki Daily News, 6 February 1931, Page 8

“LIKE LAST DAY”

DESPAIR AND DESOLATION

property loss appalling

people dumb with shock

STATE OF UTTER TRAGEDY

“It was like a glimpse of the end of the world,” said an Auckland eye-witness who made a brief visit of about three hours to the earthquake area on Wednesday morning by aeroplane from Roto' rua, and’ who returned to Auckland by air and road. “When I look back at it all it seems like a blurred cinematograph film of wrecked buildings, crying children, smoke, piles of bricks, bandaged heads, hurrying motor-curs, despair and desolation,” he went on. “The loss of property, was appalling, but what struck me even more was the utter despair , and misery of the people, I knew they would recover but it was terrible to see good folk, our own kith and kin, so stricken. They were not demoralised; they were simply struck dumb with, the shock. Their whole little world had fallen in pieces around them. Home, livelihood, everything was gone except such movable goods as they could muster. . “I landed in a field on the Napier side of Hastings, and it was there that I had my first sight of refugees. The main road Was covered as far as the eye could 'See with streams of cai s running both ways and piling up in long queues at the damaged and crooked bridges. Those going to Napier contained people on-their way to find friends or to help iii the relief work. There were also many lorries laden with food and all kinds of supplies—a reassuring sight. “The cars going south were in flight. There is no other word for it. They were crowded with men, women and children, bags, bundles, perambulators —almost everything. One in nearly every -car wore bandages, and on qll their, faces was a look I shall nevei forget, a fixed, grim stare of utter tragedy, showing only one wish, to get away with all speed from the dreadful place where all their hopes had crashed in ruin.

HARROWING EXPERIENCES. ‘With some trouble I managed to charter a car, and before I had gone far I had a harrowing experience. By the roadside I. overtook a girl of about 18, walking'in the direction of Napier and weeping as if her heart would break. •I offered her a ride and she got in, but went on weeping uncontrollably. We had gone about half way to Napier when w 4 e mef an .elderly man , walking the other way. “The girl called out,. “That’s father, and almost flung herself out of the car before-we could stop. As she clung t.c the old .man and sobbed, out her story, I learned that only a-quarter of an hour before I met.her, her mother had been killed in front of her. eyes by a falling building- in a Hastings street. All she knew was that her father had gone to Napier, so she had set out blindly on foot to find him. You can imagine the scene on the roadside. It must have been typical of many in the two towus. “I was oVliged to part from the poor people, and in due course I got to Napier. The first sight I encountered was the Marine Parade, with its beach. On the sand were literally thousands of people, sitting about helplessly in family groups, qh rugs and mattresses, surrounded by stretcher?, chests of drawers, portmanteaux and any sort of effects you caie to imagine. It was clear that they had left their houses and. would not return so long ds any more earth-tremors occurred. • “Every time anyone slammed a car door they jumped. Their nerves were as bad as that. Here and there I saw people lying under the shelter of different kinds attended by volunteer nurses. They had evidently been attended by doctors and would be' taken away later on. Some had beep terribly injured and could not be moved. “The business area of the town was desolate beyond anything I had ever imagined.. It was really an inferno. Smoke was rising everywhere. Tennyson Street, Emerson Street and Dixon Street, maxing three sides of the principal block, were impassable. The roadways were filled with piles of (bricks and crisscrossed by smouldering tramway, light and power -poles. These had brought down with them an unbelievable J angle of wires running in every direction. “It was plain that the whole area had not. only been wrecked by the earthquake. but .utterly burned out. No one cc ; ujd be alive under those ruins. Ths Vricks .lying on the pavements were so hot that they burned the soles of my shoe?. Smouldering timbers and portions of walls were falling all the time, and the police were turning away all who wanted to go too near. As someone said tp me, it was exactly like a scene immediately after a 'bombardment with heavy artillery. Later I had a look at it from the hill above, and it seemed more like an inferno than ever. . EVERY HOUSE DESERTED.

“The post office had withstood the shock, being a modern building, but had been completely gutted by fire. The Power Board’s building sent up a steady column of dense black smoke —from the oil in the large transformers, I imagine. “It was sad to see numbers of people calling at the police station and, anxiously asking for missing relations or friends. All the police could do. was to consult records and take the Inquirer to the temporary inortuary in the hope that the body of the lost one might not be found there. “In the residential streets the houses stood, but many chimneys had crashed through roofs. Not one seerped to be occupied, and the families were all encamped in the gardens. “Before mid-day I got back to the aeroplane. I did not go into Hastings, but from the air I could see that there was no devastated zone like that at Napier. The fires were in three small isolated areas, including a large department store, but it seemed to be agreed that the loss of life in those areas had been very heavy. “The general impression I gained wits that but for the help of outsiders with steady nerves the people would not have been’able to do much for themselves, owing to the fearful experience through which ■ they had passed. However, they were being, actively aided, and were responding to encouragement. In the second place, there was even a superfluity of doctors and nurses, although probably not of medical supplies. The injured and uninjured alike were being evacuated as fast as possible,, and stores yere 'being rushed in very effectively. It was odd to see tho milkman going his round as usual-—about the only normal thing in sight- ■■ . . • . “I am convinced that the evacuation will make it a long task to draw up a roll of tlio missing. It will take longer still, to search all tho ruins, so a good deal of time must pass before we know the full death-roll.