Hawke's Bay Earthquake (1931): New Zealand's Deadliest Quake

The Hawke’s Bay earthquake struck the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island at 10:47 am on 3 February 1931. With a magnitude of about 7.8, it destroyed much of the towns of Napier and Hastings and killed 256 people, making it the deadliest natural disaster in New Zealand’s recorded history. Napier was rebuilt in the Art Deco style that makes it famous today.

Background

Hawke’s Bay lies above the boundary where the Pacific Plate dives beneath the Australian Plate, one of the most active earthquake zones in the world. In 1931 Napier was a port town of about 16,000 people built partly on a hill and partly on reclaimed land around a lagoon. Hastings, about 20 km to the south, was a farming and market town.

Many buildings in both towns were made of unreinforced brick and masonry, with heavy parapets and ornaments. New Zealand had no national building code for earthquakes at the time.

The earthquake

The shaking began on a hot summer morning and lasted about two and a half minutes. The earthquake was centred roughly 15–20 km north of Napier. In Napier and Hastings brick buildings collapsed into the streets, killing people inside and on the pavements.

Among the worst losses were the nurses’ home at Napier Hospital, the Napier Technical College and the Greenmeadows seminary, where students and staff were killed. In Hastings, a collapse at the Roach’s department store caused many deaths.

The earthquake was felt across much of the North Island, and damage extended to Wairoa in the north and to Waipawa and other inland towns. In Hastings, the collapse of Roach’s department store and other buildings along the main streets accounted for many of the town’s 93 deaths. Thousands of people were injured, and hospitals were themselves badly damaged, so the injured were treated in tents, on lawns and on the racecourse.

The fires

Within minutes fires broke out in central Napier, starting in chemists’ shops and spreading through the wrecked business district. The earthquake had broken the water mains, so firefighters had little water to fight them. By the end of the day most of Napier’s commercial centre had burned. Hastings also suffered fires, though they were brought under control sooner.

The land rises

The earthquake permanently changed the landscape. The ground around Napier was raised by up to about 2.7 m. The Ahuriri Lagoon, a shallow inlet behind the town, drained and roughly 40 square kilometres of former seabed and lagoon became dry land. Today Hawke’s Bay Airport and the suburbs of Marewa and Onekawa stand on it.

Large landslides also blocked roads and the railway, cutting the region off from the rest of the country for a time.

Rescue and relief

The Royal Navy sloop HMS Veronica was berthed at Napier’s port. Its sailors came ashore at once to dig survivors out, fight fires and set up communications. Two other naval ships soon arrived with supplies and medical teams.

Thousands of residents were evacuated to other towns or lived in tent camps for weeks. The government appointed commissioners to run Napier while it was rebuilt, among them John Barton.

Rebuilding in Art Deco

Because so much of Napier and Hastings was destroyed at once, both towns were rebuilt within a few years during the Great Depression. Local architects, including Louis Hay, designed new buildings in the popular styles of the time: Art Deco, Spanish Mission and Stripped Classical.

The new buildings were usually low, made of reinforced concrete, and decorated with geometric patterns and sunbursts rather than heavy ornaments that could fall. Napier’s concentrated Art Deco centre is now a major heritage attraction and celebrated each year with an Art Deco festival.

Consequences

The disaster led New Zealand to adopt earthquake-resistant building standards in the 1930s. It also helped lead to the Earthquake and War Damage Act of 1944, which created a national insurance scheme for earthquake damage that survives today as the Natural Hazards Commission.

By the numbers

Hastings was also rebuilt quickly, and it is known especially for its Spanish Mission style buildings from the 1930s.

Timeline

• 3 February 1931, 10:47 am: The magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Hawke’s Bay.
• 3 February 1931, minutes later: Fires break out in central Napier; HMS Veronica’s crew comes ashore.
• 3-4 February 1931: Most of Napier’s business district burns.
• 13 February 1931: A strong aftershock of about magnitude 7.3 strikes offshore.
• 1931: The government appoints commissioners to oversee Napier’s reconstruction.
• 1931-1933: Napier and Hastings are rebuilt, largely in Art Deco style.
• 1935: New Zealand issues its first national earthquake-resistant building standard.
• 1944: The Earthquake and War Damage Act sets up national earthquake insurance.

Why it matters

The Hawke’s Bay earthquake was New Zealand’s worst natural disaster and a turning point in how the country builds. Its lessons were tested again in the Christchurch earthquake of 2011. Like the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 in Japan, it showed how fire after an earthquake can do as much damage as the shaking itself.