Twister tears through town
Jasmine Jordan watched in horror as a tornado formed before her eyes and tore through the Taranaki town of Ra¯hotu yesterday morning.
Jordan had been watching the lightning show with her two children, aged six and eight, when the dark clouds took a sinister turn.
‘‘Then it looked like a rain front coming through and then it just twisted right in front of us.
‘‘There was a wall of water and then I saw it kind of twist.’’
The tornado was part of a storm which smashed Taranaki yesterday, significantly damaging eight homes and destroying three of them in the coastal township. The strong winds and driving rain also closed roads, schools, the airport and cut power to more than 12,000 properties.
Roofs and iron were torn off houses and strewn through nearby paddocks, trees were toppled and power poles brought down by the twister and there were reports of a cow shed being blown away.
Jordan said as soon as she saw the tornado she and her children made a dash for their safe spot and hunkered down until the danger had passed.
The twister tore half of the roof off Jordan’s house, buckled a roller door and damaged her car but she wasn’t concerned with her material possessions.
‘‘No one has been hurt, which is amazing. That’s the main thing; there is no loss of life.’’
Another resident Demi Bocock said she was woken up by a massive rumbling about 6.45am.
‘‘I looked out and there was a massive forked lightning storm happening. And it was just like I had never seen the sky like that before. It was like purple, like black and purple.’’
She said as she was watching the storm through the window about 7.30am when everything went quiet.
‘‘It got real bad and it just went dead silent. Real, real silent. A tornado just came up off the beach and through the paddocks.’’
She said it destroyed everything in its path.
Dipal Desai, the owner of the Ra¯ hotu Four Square, watched as the roof of her business started lifting off not long after she lost power around 7.15am yesterday morning.
The roof had since come back down but there was a beam coming through the ceiling and staff were working to mop up the water that was coming inside as a result.
Despite this, Desai wasn’t too stressed by the wild weather.
‘‘I’m always ready for a surprise,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m lucky; other people have suffered more damage than me.’’
Now, the community are rallying together and although Desai has her own business to care for, she’s got tea, coffee and
milk to offer members of the town and emergency workers.
‘‘I said ‘just take it, I’m more than happy to help’.’’
The Civil Defence, which is assessing damage and helping those with smashed homes and property, said people with damage were advised to take photos of it
and contact their insurance company. Metservice meteorologist April Clark said the complex low was still sitting to the west of Taranaki.
She said wind gusts had not been as high as expected during the day but gusts of up to 120kmh were forecast overnight.
The winds would also change from a westerly to more of a southerly direction, bringing cold temperatures with it.
‘‘They’re easing off as we head into tomorrow and the low pulls away to the east of the whole country,’’ she said yesterday.
‘‘It will be a bit of a cold showery day and easing up as we head into Thursday.’’
More than 1000 homes remained without power overnight, with the region from Okato to Pa¯ tea the worst hit.
Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said crews had made significant gains throughout the day restoring supply.
‘‘About 3000 were still without power at 4.30pm but we hope to get that down to about 1300 tonight,’’ he said.
Civil Defence emergency management group controller Craig Campbell-Smart said the damage was widespread but mainly in the coastal areas.
He said some inland roads were closed, and there were also disruptions to telecommunications after damage to sites owned by Spark and PrimoWireless.
‘‘There are gas reticulation production stations that have closed but that is a national issue around supply, but that is managed by First Gas.’’
He said it was unlikely a state of emergency would be declared.
‘‘We discussed that with the mayors earlier this morning. It’s at a point where we don’t need any of the emergency powers we’d get with a state of emergency declaration. Unless it escalates and we have another tornado or another impact, it’s not required.’’
Emergency services staff descended on Ra¯hotu to assist locals affected by by the tornado.
Jason Crowe, Fire and Emergency New Zealand acting assistant area commander for Taranaki, said brigades from Okato and New Plymouth were helping out local firefighters.
‘‘We’ve been securing loose items, covering roofs, if it’s safe to do so, and protecting people’s property essentially and making sure that the area is safe,’’ Crowe said.
Okato fire chief Jared McBride was part of the heavy presence of emergency services in Ra¯ hotu.
He described the scene as ‘‘total carnage’’.
A welfare centre was set up at Ra¯ hotu School, caring for those who had been displaced by the storm. Several roads near Opunake were blocked by fallen trees and power lines, a police media spokeswoman said.
All flights in and out of the region before midday were cancelled and disruptions continued into the afternoon.