A family says they are lucky after a ‘‘loud and violent’' tornado ripped through their kiwifruit orchard, causing up to $100,000 in damage.
The “incredibly fierce” event sent ‘‘furniture and things flying’' and also left their neighbour shaken as she feared a tree might fall on top of her caravan.
Tuesday’s tornado in Katikati, near Tauranga, was another in a series causing destruction throughout New Zealand in recent days, including Auckland, Tasman, Taranaki and the Kāpiti Coast.
Marc Jenkins and Shelley Edmiston’s family of six live at the Katikati orchard.
Jenkins, who manages the orchard, told the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday that he was out when Edmiston called him the night before alerting him to the tornado.
“I was just worried about the house. All the rest of this can be put back together and life goes on but the house, you kind of need it,” he said.
“It literally went across the front lawn and the deck and missed everything else. It didn’t do any damage at all [to the house]. Got lucky there, I guess.”
Jenkins said the property looked a mess, with branches and leaves everywhere. Outdoor furniture had also gone flying.
Jenkins said the tornado had taken out orchard poles and damaged a large cloth, situated between the kiwifruit orchard and the road.
“We have to have the cloth along there so that any drift is not coming back on to the road. [We] literally can’t do anything spray-wise or PSA protection-wise on the orchard unless we have that in place.”
Jenkins said the clean-up would take two to three days and would involve “a whole bunch of chainsaws, wirecutters and a few loads to the tip”.
He said the damage could cost up to $100,000, mainly for the clean-up and replacing everything.
Jenkins, who has been managing the orchard for about five or six years, said it had 1.9 canopy hectares of kiwifruit.
“We’ve already harvested so we’re kind of lucky that the crop’s off and we’ll be getting paid for this year. It’s just the frustration – it’s more time and money. You’ve got to get it all done before you can sort of start again.”
The new kiwifruit season started about the end of July or August, he said.
Dealing with mother nature, however, was all part of working in horticulture.
Neighbour Lee Parker said she was “chilling” in her caravan on Tuesday when it started to get windy.
“By the time thought connected to action, it had increased incredibly, it was incredibly fierce. All I thought was ... a tree’s going to come down on me.
“So I just lay down on the floor thinking that, if a tree is going to come down, at least I’m low.”
After the tornado passed, she came out of her caravan and noticed some trees had come down. The garage door had also been “sucked open”.
“I came inside, pretty shaken actually, it was quite intense.”
“My car was parked right by another tree and it [the tornado] went the other way ... we’re really lucky.
“Yesterday afternoon, here I am doing yoga on the lawn and the next thing I know, I’m sort of lying on the floor of my caravan ...”
Parker said she had just moved to the property on Thursday and was staying in a caravan until she put a tiny home on it.
“We may have lost a few little pots and things ... but nothing major.”
Edmiston told the Bay of Plenty Times on the night of the tornado that she was at home with three children. She said thunderstorms and heavy rain rolled through before the tornado arrived “out of the blue”.
They heard it first – a “loud and violent” noise.
They looked out the lounge ranchslider and saw debris flying as the tornado tore through the orchard, taking out tall trees and poles as it neared their yard.
“There was debris flying everywhere. I saw furniture and things flying past.
“We ran for cover.”
Edmiston’s instinct was to get her daughters away from the glass door, so they dashed into the hallway and waited for it to pass.
“It felt like being in the eye of a storm. We could see everything around us moving in a whirl.”
A heavy glass table was picked up off the deck and tossed about, and a brick wall near the garage fell over, just missing Edmiston’s car.
She said the house was fine and no one was injured.
Firefighters were called to help with clean-up from the storm.
Simon Lyford from the Fire and Emergency northern communications team said two crews from Katikati were called about 4.30pm to reports of trees and lines down.
They found trees had fallen and taken out the lines. Firefighters removed debris until the lines company arrived, and returned later this evening to continue helping with the clean-up.
He said no major damage to homes in the area was recorded.
Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said “intense thunderstorm cells” had been scattered across the country in the past five to seven days, some of which may have produced tornados.
A tornado struck in the Auckland suburb of East Tamaki about 9.30pm on Easter Sunday and another tornado tore through Tasman about 1.20pm on Easter Monday. The Kāpiti Coast and Waitara, in Taranaki, were both hit by tornados on Tuesday.
“We’ve had a pattern that’s just really conducive to thunderstorms,” Noll said.
Thunderstorms had three “key ingredients”: moisture, instability in the atmosphere and rising air. There had been warm and humid northerly winds in recent days, which supplied the moisture, he said.
“We’ve had instability. Basically, what can happen during the heating of the day when the sun is out, it will warm up different parts of the ground quicker than others and that can lead to rising air off the ground.
“And that uneven heating can actually cause clouds to form and that can then lead to thunderstorms forming if you have enough lift in the atmosphere.”
Noll said there was a chance of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon in the Western Bay of Plenty towards the Kaimai Range.
Tomorrow and at the weekend, the wind flow would become more stable, reducing the temperature differences needed to generate thunderstorm activity.
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