North Taranaki hit by two tornados
Two small tornados hit north Taranaki in the space of 12 hours, one of which ripped off an engineering firm’s iron roof.
The tornado that caused the most damage moved through Waitara around 12.30pm yesterday and made its way east along West Quay.
Lorraine Reade was inside her and her husband’s business, Reade Engineering, when she heard a noise she couldn’t explain.
‘‘I just jumped under the table,’’ she said. ‘‘I just looked up and saw sunlight. It was just so quick.’’
Lorraine could see through a massive hole where corrugated iron had been pulled off, and the roof lifted.
She was feeling a little shaken up, but was thankful for everyone who came to help. ‘‘This is a little community, but they all came running to see if we were all right.’’
Lorraine’s husband, Tony Reade, said their building was about 100 years old.
Tony said he had been out at the time, but staff described the noise when the tornado hit as ‘‘a big bang’’.
‘‘It’s only picked on us, the bastard,’’ he laughed.
Waitara Volunteer Brigade chief fire officer Dennis Crow said he understood the tornado started near the Waitara River bridge.
He said it had slightly lifted the roof of one other business, and the other buildings on the street were undamaged. ‘‘We’re just working to tie it down for now,’’ Crow said. ‘‘There’s a storm due Tuesday.’’
Twelve hours earlier, James Pritchard had been lying awake in his Lepperton home, less than 10 kilometres from Waitara, when a tornado struck.
‘‘It was about five minutes to 12,’’ Pritchard said. ‘‘It was the old cliche´ of sounding like a train passing by – it really does sound like a train going by you.’’
Pritchard got up to find his outdoor furniture had been thrown around, including a heavy stone table-top.
But, it was a ‘‘small’’ tornado, and other than some branches and his recycling being thrown around, minimal cleanup was required.
And he was glad, as when he was living in New Plymouth in 2011, a tornado ripped out all the greenery in his front yard.
MetService had issued a heavy rain watch in Taranaki between 9am and 2pm yesterday, with rainfall amounts expected to approach warning criteria, especially around Taranaki Maunga.
The meteorologists forecast the wet weather will hang around for a few more days.
It is expected there will be early morning rain today, with possible thunderstorms and showers, and strong westerlies.
Cloudy periods and isolated showers are forecast for tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, before a fine, but windy, Saturday.