Tornado destroys home, work
Odette Bastin spent her Tuesday morning looking for somewhere to live.
Bastin’s home, on the corner of Belt Rd and St Aubyn St in New Plymouth, is uninhabitable after a tornado came through on Monday night.
The roof is mostly gone, now covered in tarpaulin. Dust and debris from the indented ceiling litters the living room. A cupboard next to the chimney now looks right up to the sky. Ceiling panels lie on the bedroom floors. In the kitchen is the steady drip, drip of leaking water onto the bench. Outside, the bolteddown trampoline has blown across the yard.
Bastin is calling real estate agents, trying to find another rental where she can continue her home educator job and that will also take her german shepherd.
‘‘I can’t work; I can’t do anything,’’ an emotional Bastin said.
‘‘The problem is it’s not just my house; it’s my workplace.’’
She was doing paperwork at the time it hit.
‘‘There was a big bang and the house vibrated.’’
She realised how bad it was when the chimney cupboard blew open, sending a lamp flying.
‘‘I went to shut it and as I looked up I could see the sky. I don’t think they’ll be able to fix it.’’
Son Travis saw the trampoline take to the air from the dining room window. It landed next to the fence.
‘‘That’s when the roof came off and the dining room roof bit caved in.’’
She fought tears as she surveyed the damage in the light of day, after being evacuated by Civil Defence during the storm.
‘‘Honestly, to start with I didn’t know what was happening,’’ she said as her son, Travis, 16, tried to find their frightened cats.
‘‘I rang my landlord and didn’t even say hello to the poor bugger. I just said the roof’s gone.
‘‘There’s no roof, no nothing, but the power was still on. There was water pouring in everywhere. It was horrible, absolutely horrible.’’
They turned off the power main, grabbed what they needed and left.
She works for PAUA, an inhome child education service, and had a child at her home at the time, but she thought a lot of it went over the child’s head because of her young age. ‘‘She was upset because I was upset.’’
Bastin said she is grateful it wasn’t much worse, and for her landlord’s understanding – he rang her and told her to stop paying rent.