topic2


 * =WHAT'S THE PLAN STAN???=

=Ballentyne’s Fire=

On the 18th of november 1947 Ballentyne’s department store caught on fire. over 300 people were employed and 250 people were in the store when the fire went on. The fire brigade at the time was understaffed, and the two most senior officers were on duty. Every rushed out as fast as they could. most staff left the building just as the centre of the department store exploded in flames, blowing out two large window’s. Sadly 41 people died in the blaze. The last bodies were not carried out of the building until 21 november. Until this day the cause to this fire was unknown.

=Napier Earthquake=

At 10.50 am on February the 3rd 1931 a angry quake shook the town of Napier. The whole of Hawke’s Bay region, rolled and rumbled for around about three minutes.

The quake measured at 7.8 on the Richter scale. The quake was felt around the North Island. Napier crumbled at the minute the quake shook. Clouds of dust rose over Napier and Hastings, buildings and homes. Glass off buildings was thrown off windows into the air.

The towns residents ran outside and did what they could to protect themselves. People were killed by falling bricks, and many were trapped alive under tonnes of rubble. The people that were lucky enough to survive the earthquake rushed to help other people in anyway they could. Some of the people that helped others get out under rubble died themselves as a result of their effort.

Fires blew through the central parts of Hastings and Napier. Water supplies were cut off in both towns. In Napier the fire stations were destroyed that badly that they couldn’t put out the fires.

No buildings were still standing in Napier or Hastings on that day, except from Napiers famous Marine Parade Norfolk Pines are one of the few features of the city that are still recognisable today.

Twelve nurses were killed when the hospital’s nurse’ s home broke down to pieces. The remaining nurse’s that was still alive went straight out to the people injured in the quake. How ever the final death toll was nowhere as high as 1000. 256 people lost their lives due to the quake. 161 of them lived in Napier, 93 lived in Hastings and 2 in Wairoa.

=Mount Tarawera=

On the 10th of june 1886 people were awoken by a series of earthquakes and a sound of an explosion. It was Mount Tarawera that erupted. The ground was shaking, and a hail of ash and hot mud struck villages and houses. Some houses, with human’s still inside, were buried. Other houses were left empty as their owners ran away from the village.

At 6:00 am the flood of ash and mud from the sky slowly stopped, but it stayed dark for around about another two hours. More than 60 people were sheltered during that night. When survivors came out of the shelter, they found that the village of Te Wairoa had been buried under a sea of mud.

On that night 153 people died straight away or a few seconds after getting buried alive by, up to 15-20 metres of mud and hot ash. There was only nine people from Te Wairoa that survived the eruption. The settlement of Te Wairoa was almost completely destroyed by falling rocks and mud, destroying the pink and white terraces.

Due to this day Mount Tarawera is still likely to erupt!

=Wahine=

On the morning of the 10th of April 1968 the Wahine had left Lyttelton at 8:40 pm the night before, carrying 610 passengers and 123 crew. There had been storm warnings, but nothing to say that this storm would be any worse than other winds in the strait well known for rough sea’s.

Twenty minutes the winds had increased to 160 km per hour, and those people on board could only see for a distance of about 800 metres. Suddenly a huge wave pushed the ferry off course. The force of another massive wave threw it across the bridge of the ship. The captain decided to to keep turning the ferry and try to bring the wahine around and back out to sea again. For thirty minutes the wahine fought the waves, but at 6:40 am had been driven back onto the rocks of Barrett Reef. Most passengers did not realise that the ferry had struck rocks because they could tell little difference between that impact and the battering the ship was receiving.

The captain called out for help, shortly after the last crew members abandoned the ship, the Wahine rolled onto her side and sank 10 metres of water. Sadly 51 people died and over 200 survivors made it to safety.