Tornado cuts through coastal village
A tornado that tore through a coastal settlement north of Taranaki was like a scene from the The Wizard of Oz movie, an eyewitness said.
The twister ripped its way through the village of Awakino, 5 kilometres north of Mo¯ kau, about 3pm on Saturday, tearing roofs off baches and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
No injuries were reported and cleaning up the broken timber, knocked-down fences and insulation strewn around the settlement was continuing yesterday.
Deane Riddick watched from his bach as the swirling column of wind made its way up the river.
‘‘It was pouring down with rain at the time and on the tailend of the storm, the tornado came through,’’ Roddick said.
‘‘It was like ... that whole Wizard of Oz thing where a whole bunch of stuff was up in the sky and rotating.’’
New Plymouth’s Jim Sullivan had been listening to the rugby match between Taranaki and Manawatu on the radio when the roof of the bach where he was staying was ripped off.
‘‘I looked through the window and saw all of the debris flying up the river,’’ Sullivan said.
He described it as a ‘‘very scary’’ experience. ‘‘It only lasted about 10 seconds, it wasn’t very long. I didn’t even have time to dive under the table or anything.
‘‘The whole house was shaking.’’ The roof was dumped into the river about 100 metres away.
Sullivan and wife Jill got a pleasant surprise when the owner of the Awakino Hotel, Sean Jeffares, arrived and offered them a room for the night free of charge. ‘‘It was very nice of them,’’ Sullivan said.
Jeffares hadn’t even been aware that the tornado had gone through until he was contacted by the news media, so he went to check everyone was OK.
‘‘I just went for a walk. It was pretty gnarly, there was some big timber spikes poking into the ground,’’ Jeffares said.
He had no hesitation offering the couple accommodation for the night. ‘‘They had no roof, the power was off and they had nowhere to stay. What else are you going to do? When disaster strikes, I suppose you just help out where you can.’’
A Fire and Emergency spokesman confirmed the roofs had been lifted and that there were no reported injuries.
He said the Mo¯ kau fire crew was in attendance and that they did not require back-up.