Shakes all round as tornado whips in
A Waikato mum hid in the bathroom as a loud buzzing headed towards her house, while her neighbour stood in the hallway of her shaking home as a tornado shook the outskirts of Hamilton yesterday.
The Ruakura farms were in the path of a tornado that ripped through, sweeping up soil, scattering rubbish from two skips, lifting sheets of corrugated iron, wooden pallets, a trampoline, washing and other outside toys high into the sky before dumping them in nearby paddocks.
As the twister struck just before 1pm, people as far as Hamilton’s CBD quickly took out their phones to capture the rare moment.
Shiela Flor, who was in one the farmhouses with her young children, said she could hear a loud buzzing before the tornado struck.
“I raced to hide in the bathroom. It wasn’t very big but it was very strong. You can see the trash flying around. It was really scary because of the sound.”
Her children’s trampoline was swept to tree height before being dumped 10m away in a paddock, washing scattered over fields and a door mat hurled into a tree.
She watched as rubbish that had been in bins at one end of the farm blew past her home, landing all over.
Farm owner Rebecca Davison was in her house next door when her small dog alerted her to a noise.
Halfway up the Holland Rd farm, the tornado had picked up dirt and she could see it spinning around. “And then I could hear a big, loud, ringing noise. Then all of a sudden the wind picked up and you could see a big wall coming towards you. “It threw roof iron into the paddock . . . it was coming straight towards the house. The whole house was shaking and it was still quite far away.”
She moved from the windows to the hallway as she felt the tornado pass over: “I have never seen anything like that before . . .” Kurt Hogwood was relaxing in his spa on the other side of Holland Rd when an intense gust of wind came from nowhere. Dust, dirt, leaves and sticks flew past for about 10 to 15 seconds.
Eureka dairy farmer Sam Owen was heading west along State Highway 26 in his tractor when he spotted a strange cloud formation.
“I stopped at the intersection there and got out of my tractor because I was on my way to do some work and took three photos,” he said. “The first one sort of shows its spoke coming down.”
The next two photos show the tornado ripping what he believes is soil out of the ground.
There were also reports of tornadoes forming in other areas.
Tauranga man James Grafas and son Isaiah, 10, were heading home from Mount Maunganui about 2.30pm when they saw a funnelshaped mini-tornado: “I handed my cellphone to my son and he started to video it for me . . .”
Weatherwatch.co.nz said instability in the atmosphere plus warmer than average weather meant tornadoes were possible.