Heroes of the storm

Maritime police officer stunned to see drifting ferry about to smash into wharf

Violent thunderstorms and damaging, tornado-like waterspouts — what’s next? Well, forecasters say much of Auckland’s wild weather is over, at least for now.

Meanwhile, the clean-up of the damage caused by a tornado which whipped through the waterfront on Monday night has begun. Workers at

the Ports of Auckland spent yesterday sorting out mess on the wharves.

Repairs to The Cloud on Queens Wharf started after a roof panel was torn off and a side door broke when high winds hit the waterfront late on Sunday night.

Spokesman Robbie Macrae said the cost of the clean-up and repairs was likely to be at least several hundred thousand dollars.

Neighbouring Shed 10, which was also damaged, is expected to reopen before the next cruise ship arrival on August 25. The Cloud will reopen ahead of its next scheduled event in mid-September.

One couple told One News their 60ft (18 metre) catamaran Rosella flipped in Monday night’s storm. Andy Stewart, who owns the yacht with wife Viv, said they couldn’t believe the news: “I came down yesterday and checked all the lines and made sure there were double lines on due to the stormy weather around, but they reckon we had winds through here over 200km/h, so it just tore everything to bits and took off.”

A worker trapped in his car when a shipping container blew onto his vehicle was discharged from hospital yesterday and was doing “all right”.

About 30 containers were blown over at Jellicoe Wharf and the Fergusson Container Terminal. Port staff used a crane to restack them.

At the peak of the storm, two maritime police officers bravely stopped a 200-tonne ferry slamming into a wharf. John Burridge told Radio New Zealand he was helping people injured by flying furniture at a restaurant when he saw a Sealink car ferry drifting freely.

It was about 50m from Captain Cook wharf when he and colleague Kevin Stone attached a tow-line from

their 40ft rigid inflatable boat (RIB) and pulled the vessel slowly into the middle of the harbour.

“It was a very surreal moment, I was standing on the wharf initially when I saw it, and moving quite quickly with the wind down the harbour.

“And when our RIB turned up and we got on board, there was only two

It was a very surreal moment . . . when I saw it. John Burridge