Commemorative services are being held in Napier and Hastings on Thursday marking 80 years since the country's biggest natural disaster.
More than 250 people in Napier, Hastings and Wairoa were killed in a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hig Hawke's Bay on 3 February 1931.
The initial shock lasted for more than two minutes, severely damaging or destroying hundreds of commercial buildings and houses.
The total cost of the damage was, in today's terms, about $900 million, but survivors say the human cost from family and friends being killed, and families being evacuated from Hawke's Bay for months, was incalculable.
