Families forced from their homes after properties torn apart by tornado in Northland

Thursday, 6 June 2019

Properties in Northland were left in disarray following the tornado.

Two tornados that hit the North Island have left some families unable to return to their homes.

The clean-up is nearly over after storms on Wednesday left more than 20 properties damaged in Northland.

Were you affected by a tornado? Send us an email or call 09 374 4752.

But Northland Civil Defence emergency management group spokesman, Murray Soljak said two of the homes were left uninhabitable and one family had been moved to temporary accommodation.

'Locals pitched in yesterday but it's pretty much done and dusted now. A few of the homes were badly damaged and two can't be lived in but it's pretty much business as usual today,' Sojak said.

Timber was ripped off some houses during the tornado in Coopers beach.

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A building inspector had told Soljak that eight of the homes had moderate to serious damage, while a further 10 to 20 had minor damage to fences, solar panels, garage doors and sheds.

During the storm roofs were ripped from buildings, and caravans flipped.

The first tornado hit Coopers beach in Northland shortly after 10.30pm on Wednesday, while a second blew through Ruakaka, also in Northland at around 12.30pm.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) shift manager Daniel Nicholson said two of the homes in Coopers beach were left uninhabitable.

FENZ spokesman Andrew Morrison said 'extensive damage' had been caused by the tornado to a number of houses in Coopers beach.

'The damage ranges from minor to more major with a roof being lifted off a house.

'Search and rescue teams were deployed to the area, there were no injuries reported.'

Police and Civil Defence were also at the scene, he said.

A shed near Kaiwaka had been 'scattered' by what he thought could have been a second tornado.

However, it was not as severe as the Coopers Beach tornado, he added.

Dave Currie, a building inspector at Coopers Beach, had to run for his life following the tornado on Wednesday while he was inspecting a house on Torsby Rd.

'I could hear this roar coming from the beach and the next minute there's debris flying through the air and the wind was howling - I made a dash for the house,' he said.

Debris blew right up the valley, causing 'considerable' damage, Currie said.

'It was quite incredible but it was all over within a minute, or a minute-and-a-half,' he said.

Taka Stokes, another building inspector who lived in the area, said the same spot had been hit by a tornado about five years ago.

'A couple of people have moved away because it has happened a couple of times - I took a little drive by where it happened there was heaps of broken windows, debris everywhere, the tornado was so fast, it just touched down and then lifted off again.'

MetService meteorologist Peter Little said 110 lightning strikes also hit Auckland during the storm, including hitting the tip of the Sky Tower, while a further 230 hit Northland.

Little said the worst of the weather had now cleared for Auckland and Northland and it would be 'just showery' for the rest of Thursday.