Study reveals twist to 1931 deadly quake

Researchers have discovered 17 new victims of the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, but in a strange twist they have also found 17 victims who weren’t actually victims – meaning the disaster’s official death toll remains at 256.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake is New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster on record, but for 88 years the list of victims has included many people not killed when the quake struck at 10.47am on Thursday, February 3, 1931.

The evidence came to light after academics from Otago, Massey and Auckland universities compiled and analysed data from hospital records and 324 death certificates, as part of a study into how building materials performed during the quake.

The results were published in the international journal Scientific Reports. Among the findings, the article states: ‘‘The analysis of the death certificate data suggested a total of 256 deaths occurred during earthquake shaking. This total included 17

Professor Nick Wilson

names that were not on previous lists of earthquake victims.

‘‘We classified deaths as being directly earthquake-related if the death certificate stated this or if the cause of death on the death certificate and other available information was suggestive that an earthquake-related cause was dominant ‘on the balance of probabilities’,’’ the report said.

But the academics also identified 17 people who were incorrectly thought to have died as a result of the earthquake.

Lead researcher Christine Clement said: ‘‘Most strikingly, we found that a death once considered earthquake-related was actually of a boy who had died the day before and his body was in the hospital morgue, which had collapsed.’’

The university academic team, which included epidemiologists, disaster experts, a genealogist and an engineer, also found that more than half of the 256 deaths were caused by the collapse of just 15 buildings.

Many of the buildings that collapsed were multi-storey and made of unreinforced masonry, which were not only a danger to those inside but also killed people in the street.

However, only 3 per cent of the deaths occurred in homes, almost all of which were constructed from wood.

Professor Nick Wilson from the University of Otago, (Wellington), senior author of the study, said there were no building regulations at that time that would have been able to reduce earthquake-related risks.

‘‘The picture for this 1931 earthquake had some similarities to the Canterbury earthquake of 2011 in that specific buildings caused most of the deaths and unreinforced masonry fell into streets, killing people there.’’

The value of wooden buildings has repeatedly been shown in earthquakes, going back as far as the 1848 Marlborough earthquake, he said.

‘‘The picture for this 1931 earthquake had some similarities to the Canterbury earthquake of 2011.’’