Most destructive quake in SA

'EXTRAORDINARY': A building is evacuated after the quake.

'EXTRAORDINARY': A building is evacuated after the quake.

Published May 20, 2016

Share

Francesca Villette

A 15-second tremor in the Boland in 1969 that left seven people smothered by falling debris, remains the most destructive earthquake in South African history.

The earthquake in Tulbagh on September 29 of that year registered 6.3 on the Richter scale, stronger than that of the 1809 Cape Town earthquake which destroyed a local Milnerton Farm.

It rocked an area of about 160km², jolting places as far apart as Wolseley, Robben Island, Paarl and Hout Bay.

There were also reports that tremors were felt as far as Port Elizabeth and Durban – about 1 600km away.

“A huge earth tremor rocked an area of hundreds of square miles in the Western Cape shortly after 10pm last night, causing damage and destruction in country towns and terror throughout the area,” the Cape Times reported

“Within minutes, reports of death and destruction poured in from the Western Cape. They include: "Two coloured youths were killed at the farm Witzenberg, in the Tulbagh district, when a cottage collapsed. A 42-year-old Coloured man, Piet Verneel, was taken to hospital with crushed legs and head injuries.”

Wolseley police station commander at the time, Warrant Officer P Oosthuizen, told the Cape Times that almost every house in the area had been damaged.

Stood in fear

Huge veld fires ringed mountains, threatening farms, and a landslide blocked the Tulbagh Kloof Pass, cutting the road and railway line.

People living on the Peninsula poured out of their homes, and even cinemas and stood bewildered in the streets, in fear of further shocks, while at Robben Island the lighthouse was put out of action after a reflector was smashed.

The Cape Times Durban correspondent wrote:

“In a block of flats in the Point Road and Prince Street areas, dozens of tenants hurriedly abandoned their beds for the night, following tremors. Clad in dressing gowns and pyjamas, they gathered in the foyers of buildings and made arrangements to sleep with friends.

“‘I’m going to a house on the Berea, where it is safe,' said one man who walked out with his electric kettle and blankets.”

Dr AM van Wyk, an officer in charge of the magnetic observatory at Hermanus, described the tremor as the worst to hit in 30 years.

“Instruments at the observatory had been damaged to such an extent that no recording of the severity of the tremor had been possible. At the Republic Observatory in Johannesburg, readings on the seismographs were described as ‘extraordinary’,” the Cape Times reported.

The earthquake was followed by a series of aftershocks, the strongest of which was a magnitude 5.7 aftershock on April 14, 1970.

In August 2014, a 5.5 magnitude tremor rocked Ceres, killing one person and reviving memories for Ceres’ older residents.

Ceres resident Thelma Cillie said: “(The) earthquake might have been a shock and taken us by surprise, but we cannot compare it with that in 1969.

Cillie, who said she was then 45, wrote the book Die Aarde Het Gebewe (The Earth Shook) in which she described events during the 1969 earthquake.

“We hid in our garage for the rest of that night,” she recalled. “There were a group of us, including our neighbours. We had nowhere to escape to because of the fire in the mountains and our car was damaged.

The Ceres Togryers (Transport Riders) Museum has a display, including pictures and news articles, on the 1969 quake.

[email protected]

Related Topics: