WARSHIP STUCK FAST IN MUD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 30, 5 February 1931, Page 1

WARSHIP STUCK FAST IN MUD.

TWELVE BODIES STILL IN RUINS OF STORE. (Special to the “Star.”) PALMERSTON N.. February 4; Two Palmerston North residents who left early this morning, with provisions stated that they saw people at Hastings and Napier living in a terrible state of destitution on the roadsides, in tents and cases and under tarpaulins. Napier remained in a terror-stricken state, the inhabitants refusing to revisit their homes and living in tents and packing . cases, covered with screens. Bundles of clothing were seen laid out in neat heaps along the Marine Parade. Able seamen and police contingents were working strenuously to remove the debris. Ships’ water casks, full of clear water, were seen placed in various parts of the town. It was quite a common sight to see new cars burning fiercely in wrecked showrooms. The water at the main wharf has receded by eight feet. H.M.S. Veronica is stuck fast in the mud alongside. Some 200 people sheltered and fed on the man-o’-war, many being in such want that they were wearing seamen’s clothing. Adjacent to the harbour, the wool stores are completely wrecked. Thousands of bales are lying in a torn state. People are cooking with kerosene in the street gutters. A camp of 200 tents was seen being made with railway tarpaulins, suspended to pegs, without sheltering sides. Many landslides occurred on the Bluff and completely covered the roads, split houses asunder and buried numerous house plots. With such a state prevailing, the people are terrorstricken lest they be sent to other centres as refugees. Up till late this afternoon no burials had been conducted in Napier, the bodies lying in the Court buildings awaiting the decision of the authorities, who are handicapped because the cemetery road is impassable. When they left the area for Hastings, small fires were burning, while fissures at least ten feet deep and three feet wide were seen along the roadway. Hastings was not so extensively damaged, but the buildings would have to be completely demolished. A terrifying experience befel Mr Roach, a director of Roach’s, when his office on the second floor of the building collapsed, sending him to the ground, amidst huge quantities of masonry. He was rescued fifteen minutes before fire swept the area after his legs had been buried and a beam had rested on his. neck.

Twelve employees are still amidst the smouldering ruins. Many people fell with the ruins, but walked out unhurt. The number of dead in the Grand Hotel has not been estimated, as the police and firemen are unable to gain suitable access to the charred remains. The two men saw forty funerals at Hastings. Many were conducted without sufficient rites, and the coffins used were crudely constructed. The town is a mass of smouldering ruins, without water or sewerage. The people are quieter than at Napier. While in Hastings, they heard two distinct booms out at sea, these being followed by shocks. At the Heretaunga Dairy Factory, Tuesday morning's butter was still in the churns.