Tornado rips into city
After a fruitless fortnight tornado hunting in the United States earlier in the year, Josh Hickford could hardly believe it when he saw a massive twister in his own city.
The 29-year-old chartered accountant was driving home from work in New Plymouth last night when he saw a tornado ripping through the sky. ‘‘I still can’t believe that just happened.’’
The tornado tore into houses along Belt Rd, St Aubyn St, French St, Kitchener
Tce, Gaine St and Devon St West just after 5pm yesterday.
Roofs were torn off, trees uprooted and windows smashed in a shatteringly violent two minutes.
Power was cut to part of the city and emergency services scrambled to make sure people were safe.
No-one was believed to have been seriously injured but Sergeant Peter Lawn said several houses were severely damaged.
A matter of minutes after the New Plymouth twister hit, there were reports of a tornado striking Ohope, near Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty, causing damage to six houses on Harbour Rd.
Hickford said he had always been fascinated by extreme weather and in May had spent
two weeks chasing storms in America but never got to see a tornado. Last night, as he drove home from work, he could hardly believe he was seeing one in his hometown. ‘‘I was driving along and then hail hit my car. I thought straight away that’s prime conditions for tornado. And then there it was in front of me.’’
With adrenaline pumping, he pulled over and took photos of the tornado with his phone for the next 30 seconds, capturing the last moments of the twister.
Belt Rd resident Ian Malloy also watched the tornado roar in. ‘‘There was just a bang and then a
big rumble and it went careering through. The door flew open and started blowing everything around.’’
Malloy said he had lost his fence, his trampoline had been blown into a creek and two of his trees had been uprooted.
Jayne Moore said she had just got home to her house at the seaside end of Belt Rd when the twister hit. ‘‘I just heard lots of banging and crashing and thunder. I wasn’t too worried at the start. I was just amazed at how much rain had come down.’’
Gary Burn, of St Aubyn St, said his house had suffered damage in the brief but violent tornado. Wooden fence stakes were impaled on his lawn and several windows were shattered.