continued as '45 eruption continued

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 606, 3 October 1995, Page 6

continued as '45 eruption continued

mark "Ruapehu '95" — the commemoration of the 1945 eruption of the mountain, Ruapehu College pupils have prepared a series of articles based around interviews of witnesses of the 1945 eruption. This week' s article is by Megan Lind: Local dairy owner, Mr Johnny Nation, recalls the eruptions of Mount Ruapehu in 1945 as being both "really frightening" and "inconvenient". Mr Nation said he remembers "hearing an almighty bang" and then when he looked out of the windowsaw "a great mass of smoke 100 feet in the air". Uponcloserinspectionthis 'smoke' was found to have rocks shooting out that looked about 40cm in diameter, but were really about 500-700 kg each. Over the period from July 1945 to November 1945, the eruptions were the most frequent, averaging about three or four a day. Before the increase in activity, Mr Nation recalls the Crater Lake getting hotter and beginning to boil, and although there were no earthquakes 'as such', a sharp jolt and loud bang were experienced. Although the eruptions themselves did not really disrupt business and school lives of the community, the clouds that deposited a layer of ash around the countryside did. Although the young Johnny Nation dreamt of "molten lava coming over the

side" life went on as normal as possible. Chores still had to be done and businesses to be run. The ash affected the drinking water, as water was collected from the roof or from a tank. This in tum affected washing, cleaning and cooking, but the ash became more of a nuisance and an inconvenience as time went on. Mr Nation recalls getting a 21b fruit jar of ash from his family' s roof in a two-hour period, although this depended on which way the wind was blowing. According to Mr Nation, the town of Ohakune was 50 per cent prepared to evacuate if necessary, but were considerably safer as access to the mountain was restricted because of no roads or transport. He also recalls the mountains of Ngauruhoe and Tongariro becoming more active as Ruapehu did. When asked if he was prepared for another eruption, Mr Nation replied that he was "too old to worry" and that the problems would be more concerned with trying to keep the people away from going to the skifield for a look. Mr Nation described the experience as a "once in a life-time event". Little did we realise that Mount Ruapehu would choose to erupt again less than two weeks after the interview.