The Hawke’s Bay earthquake
- When
- 3 February 1931
- Where
- Napier · Ahuriri
- Reach
- Several regions
A magnitude 7.8 quake levelled Napier and Hastings and killed 256 people — still New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster.
Fires broke out in the ruins and burned the centre of Napier for two days while the water mains lay broken. The seabed rose by up to two metres, lifting 40 square kilometres of Ahuriri lagoon into dry land that is now the airport and suburbs. Rebuilding in the depths of the Depression produced the Art Deco centre the city trades on today, and the disaster prompted New Zealand’s first serious building codes.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
Related
Cyclone Bola
Over 900 millimetres of rain fell on the East Coast in three days, stripping hillsides and cutting the region off. Three people died.
GisborneThe influenza pandemic
About 9,000 people died in two months — roughly half as many as died in four years of war. Māori died at more than seven times the Pākehā rate.
The 28th (Māori) Battalion
Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū
A volunteer battalion organised by tribal area fought through Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy, and took proportionally the heaviest casualties of any New Zealand unit.
Te Kotahitanga — the Māori Parliament
Te Kotahitanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi
A Māori parliament met annually for a decade, seeking the self-government promised by Te Tiriti and passing its own legislation.
Waipatu, Hawke’s Bay