26 August 2008
Power and phone lines were cut, railway lines closed and goods toppled from shop shelves as a 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook Hawke's Bay last night.
The 11.25pm jolt was centred 10km south-west of Hastings, around Bridge Pa and Pakipaki, at a depth of 30km and was followed by an aftershock of magnitude 3.5, 10 minutes later.
Geological and Nuclear Science (GNS) reported the earthquake was the strongest in the country this year and unusual because it struck on land, rather than out at sea.
GNS received reports the earthquake was felt as far afield as Taranaki, Wanganui, Wellington and Waikato.
In Hastings, shop owners headed into work this morning to start the clean-up while the district emergency management team urged people to double check their homes for damage.
In Napier, the earthquake knocked out power to parts of Taradale and Maraenui for about four hours but Unison spokesman Danny Gough said disruption to the several hundred consumers was minimal.
Mr Gough said the outages were caused by lines clashing.
'They are about half a metre apart so that gives some indication of how much they were swaying last night,' he said.
Crews would inspect poles and transformers throughout today.
A few minutes after the shake firefighters were called to a property in Riverbend Road, Maraenui, after the occupant heard a crash from his garage and discovered a gas cylinder had toppled.
The top of the cylinder had broken and gas was leaking. Firefighters helped vent the garage and sealed the cylinder.
The Napier Pak'nSave supermarket reported 'a couple of bottles of wine and some jam jars' broken _ although the Hastings store, closer to the centre of the quake, reported its bottle store had been 'hammered'.
One of the multi-storied blocks at the EIT in Taradale was closed this morning after cracks were discovered in walls, along with sections of fallen plaster.
Campus Health and Safety officer Dick Hilton said a structural engineer had been called in to conduct an examination of the Hedley Building.
'We just want to make sure the building is safe. We have closed it as a precaution,' he said.
Meetings planned for today had been rescheduled.
The Hastings District Council's emergency management officer, Paul Hawke, said it was important people checked fireplaces and chimneys.
'We want to make sure there's no chimney damage. The last thing we want is for people to light fires and find the fire going through the chimney and into the house,' he said.