The earthquake measured magnitude 7.8, centred 15 kilometres north of Napier along one of the thrust faults within the Hikurangi Subduction Zone's accretionary wedge, at depths between 5 and 25 kilometres. Nearly every building in the central areas of both Napier and Hastings collapsed. The Dominion newspaper reported that 'Napier as a town has been wiped off the map.' The damage was concentrated in brick structures - built before anyone had thought to require earthquake resistance.

The human cost reached into every corner of the region. Of the 256 confirmed dead, 161 were in Napier, 93 in Hastings, and 2 in Wairoa. At Mission Estate in Taradale, a missionaries' accommodation block had been opened just the day before. The earthquake destroyed the stone chapel, killing two priests and seven students. In Havelock North, St Luke's church was damaged just before a wedding was scheduled. The couple married later that day, outdoors.

Perhaps the most extraordinary consequence was geological. The earthquake lifted roughly 40 square kilometres of seafloor above water level. The Ahuriri Lagoon, which had been a coastal body of water, rose by more than 2.7 metres and drained. Today, that reclaimed land holds Hawke's Bay Airport, industrial developments, and suburban housing. Residents drive to work over ground that was underwater the morning of the earthquake.

Fires compounded the destruction. Gas mains ruptured, and flames spread through what remained of the commercial districts. Sewerage systems failed. Telegraph lines went down, cutting communications at the moment they were most needed. Five days after the earthquake, New Zealand's first commercial air disaster added to the region's grief: a Dominion Airlines Desoutter monoplane, one of the small aircraft making three daily return trips between Hastings and Gisborne carrying passengers and relief supplies, crashed near Wairoa, killing all three on board.

The earthquake produced moments of extraordinary human behaviour. At Bluff Hill in Napier, a group of prisoners on a work detail were caught in a landslip. Four were buried. The remaining prisoners dug them out - two were already dead - then reassembled without a single attempt to escape. They were locked back up in the Napier Jail.

Across the region, people improvised. Nelson Park became Napier's evacuation centre, filling with tents and a field kitchen that fed over a thousand people. Families camped along Marine Parade. Schools and community buildings distributed free food. Water barrels were stationed throughout the towns for anyone who had lost access. Women and children were evacuated first; men were expected to stay and help. The army and navy arrived to assist with recovery in a city that had no formal structure for receiving them.

The government appointed two commissioners, John Barton and Lachlan Bain Campbell, to manage the rebuild after recognizing that the Napier borough council would be overwhelmed. A temporary shopping centre called Tin Town went up in Clive Square - corrugated iron structures housing over 50 businesses, funded by a 10,000-pound loan that proved wholly inadequate. Tin Town lasted about two years while permanent buildings rose around it.

The timing of the rebuild shaped Napier's identity. Because most construction took place during the 1930s, when Art Deco was the prevailing architectural style, the city emerged as one of the finest concentrations of Art Deco buildings in the world. The first earthquake building code followed in 1935, and regulations established in response to the disaster mean that to this day, only four buildings in all of Hawke's Bay stand taller than five storeys. On the tenth anniversary, the New Zealand Listener reported that Napier had risen from the ashes like a phoenix, quoting a school principal who declared, 'Napier today is a far lovelier city than it was before.' Every year on 3 February, clock towers in Hastings ring at 10:47.