NAVY SHOWS WAY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1931, Page 12

NAVY SHOWS WAY

REPAIR WORK STARTED

CLEARING STREETS

SOME MAINS SOUND

(From "The Post's" Special Reporter.) NAPIER, This Day. On Wednesday and Thursday the naval detachments, after their magiiificenti work on tlto clay of the earthquake, were practically the only bodies engaged in the hugo work of clearing' up the streets, and their helpers were not very many. The polico and military woro endeavouring to get the people into some sort of system, but they were greatly handicapped by the loss of a jiropei' news distribution system, the only means being a onepago bulletin. The doctors, nurses, and Red Cross and ambulance people still had their hands full in the field hospitals, and civilian volunteers were busy with fook and water supplies, tho setting up of camps, and tho preliminaries for getting people away from the town. Though no official order for a complete evacuation was given, ono certainly had the impression that the offer of the trans Port committees to carry women and children and old peoplo from • tho earthquake area amounted to an instruction. That was natural enough, considering the rush and anxiety, and-the house-to-house calls of voluntoer workers advising, of the transport arrangements confirmed the general.impression. On Thursday morning the men from the three war boats and • the fire brigadesmen tackled the most dangerous of the gutted central area buildings, the brigadesmen placing the grapples by means of extension ladders and the naval officers superintending the demolition. Though the shocks continued, only one or two were severe enough to shake down walls and cornices. Other detachments, strengthened by a few civilian workers and the polico, continued the search for bodies. It is quite impossible to say how many have yet to bo found, and though everyono hopes that the death roll will not be lengthened, tho pilcd-up debris in what wero the shopping streets and the yet unsearched interiors hold terrible possibilities.. Identification _of bodies found in such conditions' is difficult. REAL WORK STARTED. On Friday morning civilian workers took up the work in organised fashion, and by 8 o'clock lorries wore running from the town loaded with broken brickwork. ■ By midday all streets were open to through traffic, and-the clearing work was accordingly speeding up. The first loads wero carried to the Napier , South approach to the port for the 'purpose of patching the worst, broken lengths of roadway and for filling subsidences^ but there is a vastly greater ■ amount of debris than will bo required in that way. A harbour dump is being made. . Overhead tram wires and telephone 'lines lay in a tanglo in tho fired streets, but they were cleared away in •quick time. Though tho railway tracks to tho port and on tho northern line were greatly damaged and left twistod and hanging where the bed had fallen away, tram tracks apparently did' not suffer to any extent, and with occasional exceptions they are still in working order. Though a great many motor-cars were caught and crushed by falling buildings, tramears wero all clear One stands intact near tho Hastings Street School, which is now tho temporary post office and the centre of much of the official business of Napier. POWER, SUPPLY. Eloctric power supply from Wailcareuioana was cut off by tho carrying away of a transmission lino tower at Pihanui, 40 miles -to the north, and by the extensive damage done at the Government sub-station at Taradale, but the Public Works Department brought power in with remarkably little delay from Mangahao, through Waipukurau. Napier and Hastings have now some stroot lights, but there is no supply for tho homes, for overy residential street must bo gone over by the linesmen, and after that house installations will have to be examined. Considering tho height of the gasworkß and the absence of strengthening floors and partitions, this brick building stood remarkably well; it is cracked, "and there are great gaps high up in the walls. The plant is probably much damaged. UNDERGROUND SERVICES. To what extent water and gas mains and sewers have been broken will not be known until examinations and pressure tests have been made, but miles of underground services will have to-be taken up and relais. In. some parts where the roadway h^s. opened in wide fissures the water mains are unbroken and not much out of alignment. The damage to sewers is expected to be general. Water, was made available' at the Hastings Street School through a small main, electric pqwer being used for pumping. A great flood of artesian water welled up from the bores from which the town's supply was formerly pumped, covering fully half tho recreation ground. This flow is being capped to prevent Jhe water from entering broken sewers and possibly creating trouble in other parts of thej;own. Chimney repairs havo started, but only hero and there, for skilled labour is fully taken1 up and there is more urgent work in hand. Fortunately, the weather, continued warm and dry, and homes were spared one moro trouble. Tarpaulins, old iron, woodwork, and oven sacks and blankets have been placed over the gap's where chimneys foil. Not all the chimneys fell; possibly- one in every hundred stands. In the outer areas shaken, Waipawa, Waipukurau, Havelock, and iv the farming districts the less extensive damage has been already taken well in hand.