The Aftermath: Cleaning Up

Quick to recover from the initial shock of the quake and the damage it caused, staff of city business houses were soon reporting for cleaning-up restoration duties.

Many of the shops were a complete shambles inside, with previously-shelved stock littering the floor in piles of expensive debris.

However, despite their heavy losses, all shops were spic and span and ready for business again by Monday morning.

Dismally surveying his range of ornamental and kitchen crockery scattered over the floor in a thousand pieces, Hal Andrew, of Adairs, prepares to tidy up.

George Rawlings sorts broken merchandise at Howards.

Roy Hansen stands in his shop window and contemplates the scene of devastation around him.

In Adairs, Leicester Mawson faced a big job in sorting and returning hundreds of packets and tins of foodstuffs to their shelves

The shattered roof of Mr Kearney's home in Cheesman Road was quickly waterproofed with a large tarpaulin

The top of the Wi Pere Memorial had to be removed after it shifted on its base. The wavy line which appears in the picture to be a crack is in fact a cable.

Adairs cosmetics department was a shambles

Standing in a pile of glass outside his shop in Peel Street, Pat Wheelan finishes cleaning out his window.

The brick face of Dudley Redstone's workshop in Palmerston Road had to be removed after it leaned away from the roof. George McKain is seen starting the job.

Gisborne Transport staff commence removing rubble which once formed a parapet on their building.

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The Gisborne Photo News

No 141 : March 23, 1966

The Aftermath: Cleaning Up