HUGE TIDAL WAVE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 March 1931, Page 2

HUGE TIDAL WAVE

SEQUEL TO EARTHQUAKE. A PORTLAND ISLAND REPORT. NAPIER, March 4. Fears that Napier might be swept h.v a tidal wave after the eaithquak--011 February 3 were apparently not without foundation, for information which lias iust come to hand from Portland Island, off the end of Muhin Peninsula, states that that small piece of land was washed by a' wave over twenty feet in height. An old man. Mr \V. Neville, who has had a small farm on the low portion of Portland Island for many years, and whose family are the only inhabitants of the island apart from that of the lighthouse-keeper, brought the news to Nap’er yesterday that a tidal wave fortunately a -small one had followed only a short time after the ’quake.

“It. was about twenty feet or a little more in height,” lie said. ‘T’ortunatil.v it was low tide, otherwise it, might have been much higher, and might have done much more damage. It came from the south or between there and south-east.”

The fact that the wave travelled from tlie South indicates that it was probably started by the land at the other extremity of tlie Bay, Capo Kidnappers, rising from the water. Reports that a tidal wave would probably fo'low the ’quake were circulated through stricken Napier within an hour of the shake, and there were many who had definite fears about the possibility of such a visitation. It is much more probable, however, that a wave, if one did start, travelled a way from Napier, as the land here rose. Had if sunk seven feet, instead of rising. it is not improbable that a wave would have struck the long shingle beach.