Michael Fowler’s Historic Hawke’s Bay
Rare photo captures killer quake
This is Emerson St in Napier looking towards Marine Parade after the first earthquake struck on February 3, 1931 at 10.46.46.3. It is an extremely rare photo of events before the fires took hold and razed most of the CBD.
The photo was taken by Arthur Goodger (1904 — 1972). The movements of people are interesting with some running, others engaged in conversation and some seemingly staring in disbelief. I wonder how many of these people were killed 30 seconds later when the earthquake resumed in equal strength?
Napier’s streets were very narrow, and street widening had already begun before the earthquake on one side of Emerson St with land owners agreeing to give up 3m of their properties.
When wooden building fronts were set back for street widening their remodelled facades were built in brick or concrete (and a brick bylaw meant they had to do this) — but these were insecurely attached to the building and immediately peeled away during the earthquake.
Some building owners on the other side of Emerson St also followed their example and built brick/concrete facades. So Emerson St was a collection (as shown) of mostly wooden buildings and remodelled brick/ concrete facades.
In other parts of the Napier CBD this same process had been repeated. People perished as these facades crashed out on pavements.
Others trapped by fallen buildings were killed as fires, which had started in three of the chemist shops, spread throughout the CBD and were unable to be stopped due to a lack of water.
One of the lucky ones to escape was Peggy Thorp who was in the dentist’s chair of J Cornford on the second floor on the Hastings St end of Emerson St. The whole fac¸ade disappeared on to the street, and she and the dentist and his son Jack scrambled for safety to a back room.
During the reconstruction of Napier after the earthquake, the widening of Emerson St was completed as were other streets including Tennyson and Dickens.