Tornado rips into New Plymouth
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 it.
‘‘I still can’t believe that just happened,’’ he said.
The tornado tore into houses 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.
Fortunately no-one was believed to have been seriously injured.
A matter of minutes later there were reports of a tornado striking Ohope, near Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty, causing damage to six houses. 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,’’ he said. With adrenaline pumping he pulled over and took photos of it with his phone.
Belt Rd resident Ian Malloy said: ‘‘There was just a bang and then a big rumble and it went careering through.
‘‘The door flew started blowing around,’’ he said.
He said he had lost his fence, his trampoline had been blown into a creek and two of his trees had been uprooted. open and everything