Trail of tornado damage
A tornado tore through an area of rural Taranaki yesterday morning, with one resident losing his shed and another suffering damage to her home and car.
About 9.45am, Fire and Emergency New Zealand responded to reports of damage in Motunui, north of Waitara, including a roof lifting at a property on Lower Turangi Rd.
Severe storms had been rolling across the country over the weekend, but the first inkling resident Kylee Davison had about the freak weather event was a sudden gust of wind, which blew open a lounge window and the door on her fireplace.
A ‘‘big sound of thunder’’ followed, and Davison said the whole house started ‘‘creaking and shaking’’.
‘‘We just didn’t know what to do. It was real scary.’’
In a matter of seconds, water started coming through the ceiling of the property Davison had rented for five years, drenching the carpets. As a result of the damage, two of the rooms were off limits.
Outside, things were not much better. Downed power lines covered Davison’s car, and the top of the chimney, which flew off during the tornado, had smashed the windscreen.
Another affected resident was Brendan Mackenzie, who lost his shed. Mackenzie was alerted to the damage by his neighbour.
He has lived in the area all his life, and said this was the third or fourth time a tornado had blown through.
Mackenzie said the damage would be covered by insurance, but he was otherwise OK.
‘‘As long as no-one’s hurt, that’s the main thing. You can replace a shed,’’ he said.
A police media spokesperson said officers had gone door-todoor to conduct checks at addresses nearby to make sure people were safe. ‘‘At this point, no issues have been reported aside from power outages.’’
Metservice said initial information it had pointed to a strong thunderstorm being detected in the area at the time the property damage was reported.
Powerco said 37 properties were affected by outages from about 9.50am, with connection expected to be restored by 6pm.
The fire service confirmed two fire trucks attended, one of which left at 11.20am.
Metservice is predicting more rain for Taranaki this week, with a chance of thunder tomorrow evening.