A survivor remembers New Zealand's deadliest earthquake 88 years after it hit Napier

Six-year-old Hamilton Logan was in the pantry getting a biscuit when his life changed dramatically.

There was a rumbling sound and everything around him was upended. Jams, preserves and linen ended up in a pile on the floor around him.

It was 10.47, February 3, 1931, and the Napier earthquake had just struck.

Now 94, Logan says he can still vividly recall that day.

"The first thing that I remember, after being completely bewildered, was a big arm going around my waist, and my sister Marjorie carrying me into the nursery and waiting there until the shaking had subsided."

He said it took about a month before the family had running water, and six weeks before the kitchen chimney was fixed and they could cook inside the house.

At one point his mother placed a bowl of water outside and the water did not stop moving for 48 hours.

"The earthquake in 1931 brought a whole different scale of thought, fear, imagination and anticipation to all of our lives, not only the juvenile ones but the older ones too."

"We realised that the force of nature was just so extreme."

Hamilton Logan was 6 when the 1931 Napier Earthquake struck. Photo / Paul Taylor

Logan has collated what he remembers of the earthquake with written recollections of his father Frank and grandfather Francis.

He said it is important for future generations to learn about one of the most important events in Hawke's Bay's history.

His father, who was 46 at the time of the quake, wrote down his memories of the earthquake before he died.

"Suddenly at thirteen minutes to 11, I found myself falling to the ground and in the course of doing so my thought was a stroke had overcome me and that my life's work was ending."

It was when he was on the ground he realised it wasn't a stroke, but a severe earthquake.

He wrote that within hours of the quake, organised search parties were going through the wreckage of Napier looking for survivors, and the navy arrived.

A shanty town of shops, banks and offices were set up in Clive square and it remained the business hub of Napier for between 18 months and two years.

Francis Logan's house was destroyed during the earthquake, and aged 73, he and his wife had to temporarily move into the garage of one of their sons.

"The town is absolute ruins," he wrote to his family in England.

"Both Napier and Hastings are under military law. There will not be much business done in Napier or the surrounding country for months, if not years."

"The squares and public parks are full of tents and the people are living and sleeping out of doors."

"We are having about a dozen serious earthquakes every day. They will continue for a few days yet."

Logan said he would be presenting a copy of his, his father and grandfather's memories to Napier Mayor Bill Dalton, and would also be sending a copy to the Hawke's Bay Knowledge Bank.