The 83rd anniversary of the Hawke's Bay earthquake was an ideal time to reflect on how the catastrophe had reshaped the region and check preparedness for a future disaster, Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said yesterday.
He was speaking at an earthquake commemoration service in the city, also attended by Napier Mayor Bill Dalton and other regional leaders. About 80 members of the public, along with students from St Matthew's Primary School, attended the service, which began with pipers from the Hastings City Pipe Band walking from each end of the CBD.
As part of the service, the bell in the clock tower of central Hastings' clock tower tolled at 10.46am, marking the time that the quake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, struck on February 3, 1931, claiming 256 lives.
Mr Yule was joined by survivors as he laid a wreath at the base of the clock tower.
As well as reflecting on the sadness and loss of the tragedy, yesterday's commemorations were a reminder of the need for disaster preparedness, Mr Yule said. "What happened in Christchurch is the most recent reminder of that."
Mr Dalton said the dramatic events of the earthquake were a reminder of the ever-present threat of earthquakes and other natural disasters.
Historian Michael Fowler recounted some "apocryphal" stories from the quake that were widely circulated but unlikely to be true. One was about a woman who had been taking a bath at the time and was flung out of a building, still in the bath. She was rescued by a policeman who draped his coat around her.
"If that was true, which I doubt it was, it was probably an early form of 'safer communities together'," Mr Fowler said.
Quake survivor Gordon Vogtherr, now 88, was a 5-year-old attending his first day at school when the quake struck. The commemoration ceremony was a chance to keep in touch with fellow survivors, he said. "It's a good thing to remember and catch up with these people. It's a part of our history."
Olivia Trotter, 96, was starting high school on the day.
"I think it's very good to keep [the commemoration] going," she said.
"Hastings really began after the quake."