Roof tiles, trampoline flying through the air in Bay of Plenty

Saturday, 27 June 2020

Papamoa resident Maria Moore: 'The fence is down, the netball hoop, heaps of stuff strewn all over the road.'

A tornado that ripped through the Bay of Plenty sounded like an explosion, a Papamoa resident says.

The weather caused damage right through the region, with Papamoa the first affected, just after 9am on Saturday.

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Maria Moore, who lives in Papamoa, Tauranga, gave a vivid account of the tornado to1 NEWS.

'I was going what the hell is that? Strong wind, and the windows started going like this and I thought this is going to explode my windows.

'Thank god I've got an emergency tsunami kit.'

Moore said to 1 News that she was on the phone to her mum in Tokoroa at the time.

A tornado has reportedly done damage in the Bay of Plenty on Saturday morning.

'She is skiting about winning something at the Cossie.

'So we come outside, the fence is down, the netball hoop, heaps of stuff strewn all over the road.'

Moore said the neighbour's trampoline was across the road in Pak 'n' Save trees.

Her surf ski ended up in the neighbour's driveway.

'All their fences are knocked down, so I stacked them up, took the surf ski back home and got all the signs off the road.'

SunLive was told that roof tiles, gutters and TV discs coming off houses and a trampoline flying through the air.

A portable road sign had been blown over in Papamoa

Roads affected appear to be Oriental Parade, Pacific Cove Drive, Topaz Ave and Caribbean Place.

Road work signs were also seen being flung through the air.

Papamoa resident Christen Thompson told Stuff was in the local shopping centre when the tornado hit but has seen the aftermath.

'We didn't know it had happened until we got out. On our drive home I saw some guy up on his two-storey balcony trying to fix his clearlite after it was ripped off.

“I saw a few things blown off and trees ripped to pieces.”

He said the weather had been extremely wet and windy, all morning.

Tauranga business owner Nathan Hunt said the tornado had come through Tauriko as well around 40 km from Papamoa.

“I own a business down at the Lakes at Tauriko and there was basically a tornado that came up between our two buildings and ripped off the roller door and part of the building right beside us.'

Hunt wasn't onsite at the time but arrived about 10 minutes after to check on his property.

'On the same road it's overturned a portacom site office upside down onto the road. No one was in but obviously some impressive power to turn that upside down,' Hunt said.