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Elsewhere
in the Buller Gorge fissures opened in the ground and slips came
down from cliffs or steep slopes. The Buller river was, for a time,
reduced to a trickle by blockages up toward Murchison and in the
Maruia valley. Fortunately those were breached gradually instead
of bursting away suddenly and causing greater devastation. |
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Reports
that a nearby mountain known as the Old Man had been toppled turned
out to be unfounded - the Old Man can still be seen up the gorge.
However, hundreds of local people had their homes destroyed and lives
devastated. Seventeen people were killed, most engulfed by landslides
as far away as Seddonville on the West Coast. At Whale Creek flat,
three children and a teacher escaped from their classroom just before
boulders, tree debris and mud swept it away. |
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Three
men working in a river diversion tunnel through the neck of the
peninsula also had a terrifying experience, but fortunately their
exit was not blocked. |
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Looking
back later, people realised that booming noises heard during the days leading
up to the earthquake had been forerunners to it, not blasting on the railway
or farms as thought at the time. two years later, a massive death
toll in the Hawke' Bay earthquake emphasised what loss of life there would
have been if the Murchison event had happened in a highly populated area. |
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