March 05, 2021
Natis shaken from beds
A Ngāti Porou environmentalist says people were ready to evacuate when a severe earthquake struck off the East Cape in the early hours of this morning.
A 7.3 magnitude quake struck at 2.27am about 95km east of Te Araroa.
Tina Ngata says the area was rocking and rolling.
"A lot of our whānau down on the flats in Te Araroa and Wharekahika self-evacuated even before the alerts went out. They all know if it's longer than a minute they all need to pick the whānau up and get to higher ground which they did," she says.
Tina Ngata says over the past year many households have been given emergency packs for climate-related events, which people were able to put in their cars as they were evacuating.
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