Tornado cause havoc and damage in 1969
At 2.45am on April 8, 1969 the people of Levin were rudely awakened when a tornado ripped through a north-east subdivision.
The Morgan subdivision was fairly new with many of the houses on it only a couple of years old. It appears the tornado came in from the sea and crossed the northern end of Lake Horowhenua.
It ripped through Tiro Tiro Rd, Gordon Place, carved a narrow course across Rosylyn Rd near the railway crossing, and carried through to the Fairfield Rd area.
It then continued to the corner of Arapaepae and McDonald roads where it petered out, but not before creating a trail of destruction. In total, around 15 homes were severely damaged with up to 30 homes affected.
Early estimates of the cost was around $100,000.
It was lucky there were no serious injuries but there were some pretty close calls. One resident woke up and looking out the window saw a mass of material hurtling towards her house.
She rushed to check her child in her room, and there was a large piece of glass embedded in the wall right above
her daughter’s bed.
Her daughter was unharmed but the next day she was very upset that the playhouse her father had built had been destroyed.
Local residents had a lucky escape when roof tiles came through their ceiling, with one suspended right above where one couple had been sleeping.
Another woman suffered a cut to her face when a large piece of glass flew past and struck a wardrobe that was beside her bed.
The tornado was followed by torrential rain and neighbours and friends worked hard to cover roofs and broken windows on ravaged houses.
Damage to a property on the corner of Arapaepae Rd showed just how strong the winds had been. Concrete blocks and wrought iron fencing which had surrounded a swimming pool were ripped from the ground. The winds that night were so fierce that some of the debris was carried over the Tararua Ranges and found more than 15 miles away in the northern Wairarapa.
It was said that is sounded like a jet engine starting up, and for many it brought back terrible memories of the Wahine Storm. There was one incident where a chicken house just disappeared and out of 20 chickens only seven were found.
This was published in the Horowhenua Chronicle on January 22, 2020 as a heritage column.