THE HASTINGS DEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 31, 6 February 1931, Page 11

THE HASTINGS DEAD

BETWEEN 120 AND 130

MORE BODIES,FOR RECOVERY

(By Telegraph.—tress Association.) HASTINGS, This Day. An official list of dead compiled last evening accounted for very nearly one hundred deaths and presumed deaths, but there are bodies yet to be recovered from' the wreckage. Tho fatalities in Hastings are expected to reach between 120 and 130. A Red Cross office established in Hastings has created a sub-organisation, for the arrangement of transport, and a steady stream of cars owned by Napier and Hastings residents has been taking people: from the two towns to places as far south as AVcllingt'on. There has been a. process of evacuation going on since the afternoon of the tragic day of the earthquake. It is impossible to compute how many have left under private arrangements. It Js stat"ed that a thousand cars passed through Waipukurau bound southwards between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The car .traffic has increased vastly since Wednesday. Stories of the infinite kindness of people living in the outside districts continue 'to be lold. A young Marton baker came post haste to Hastings with a van loaded with bread, which he distributed free'among the residents. If there were any Hastings residents who were bold enough to consider sleeping in their houses last night, the earthquake which shook the town at 9 o'clock must have put any such notion completely out of their minds. It was a sustained and violent tremor of an intensity probably equal' to {he second 'quake on Tuesday nighty and had there been anything standing which was able to come down, it must surely have come down. Evidence of justifiable increasing nervousness were noticed; but what little demonstrations of fear there were passed away almost as soon as the rumbling sound. There was a tremor at 2.30 this morning. No further 'quakes have'been felt, but till the particularly heavy shake referred to there had been an almost" uninterrupted trembling of the earth. The phenomenon was so steadily maintained that most people had repeateel illusions that the ground was shaking underfoot when it was not. ' ' The visit of numerous members of Parliament, Cabinet Ministers, ' members of the Eeform Party (including Mr, Coates), and of'the Labour Party has been most welcome to the rejief committees. It was reassuring also to have the knowledge that .the Government was sending to the district's aid the heads of various Departments, from whom help was most needed. Evidences of sympathy have had a particularly heartening .effect upon the people. Any help forthcoming must lie organised and calculated to help. The whole commercial lifo N of the town is completely disorganised, and it' is~ likely that none of the banks will reopen for at least another seven or eight days. At tho moment, it is not uncommon to find people with large cheques who have not got, and cannot get, cash to buy even a newspaper. Much clearing work has been done, and the town.''looks much less desolate, and1 much more secure. It now is heavily picketed, and some of the pickets arc armed, no risks being taken.