WAITING AT STATION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 30, 5 February 1931, Page 14

WAITING AT STATION

REFUGEES' GRAPHIC STORY

A number of men and women waited anxiously on the Thorndon railway station last night for the arrival of the Napier express in the hope of mooting friends and relatives, but the train brought very few people from Napier, Hastings, and surounding districts. This morning again there were several on the platform whoso strained faces told of their anxiety for friends or relatives, but their waiting was in vain, although a train from Palmerston North which arrived at tho station at 11.20 a.m. brought four refugees from Napier, Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Jackson and their two small children. It was not expected this morning that there would be many refugees arriving in Wellington by train until the arrival of the express from Hastings to-night. This morning an unusually long train was dispatched from Thorndon to Hastings. Instead of the usual six carriages there were eighteen, with'three engines. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were, motored from Napier yesterday to Porirua, where they spent the night, coming on to Wellington by the train from Palmerston to-day. Although she had had the benefit of a night's rest, Mrs. Jackson's face showed only too clearly what she had been through. She and her husband told a very poignant story of the terrible experiences in Napier. In describing the scenes after the earthquake, Mrs. Jackson said that a motor-cyclist rushed round south Napier crying, "Take to the hills. A tidal wave is coming." People were terrified. They ran in all directions, women fainting. Tho scene was a terrible one.

Many people ran to the beach. There were cries that an orb of fire was falling. The sun, obscured by the smoke from the fires that had started everywhere, looked like a red ball. The heat was terrifi-c.

Mr. Jackson, who was employed at Direct Supplies, Ltd., one of the big drapery stores in Napier, said that when the earthquake occurred he rushed outside into.the street and had a lucky escape from falling glass and stone. As far as ■ was known none of the employees of the store were killed. It was thought, however, that a Miss Shrimpton, one of the lady assistants, had a foot severed, and it was reported that she was missing, but in all pro-bability-she had been removed to oue of the casualty stations. ,

"The earthquake seemed to. come in waves," said Mr. Jackson, "and it had. a vertical movement. You could feel the ground heaving. It was terrible." He said that the front portion of the Masonic Hotel was the first to fall. The rest of the big building then collapsed, and a fire swept through the debris. Mrs. Jackson added that Mr. Hanlon, the proprietor of the hotel, escaped. He was standing- in the bar of the hotel, and a man on either side of him was struck down and killed.

Mr. and Mrs. Jackson said that -t was feared that many were killed when M'Gruer's shop collapsed. Until some of the debris of the buildings was cleared it would be impossible to csti-. mate how many lives had been lost. They saw a number of dead in the ruins before.they left Napier, and some had suffered terribly. When they left tremors were still being'felt.