Tears as family return to wreckage

THE tears were already falling down Sharon Wright's cheeks before she arrived at her Lodge Ave home yesterday morning.

The mother-of-three, with another baby due in July, lost the roof to her home on Thursday night after a tornado ripped through parts of Mount Maunganui.

The carpet squelched under her and her children's feet as they walked through their house for the first time to assess damage.

The children all pinched their noses and complained about the damp musty smell polluting the family's home.

Parts of the roof were found four houses down, outside Mount Maunganui Intermediate.

About 8.30pm on Thursday Mrs Wright was talking to a friend on the phone, while her three children were in bed asleep. The wind and rain intensified and started leaking into their home.

"It felt like it came out of the blue," she told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.

"I didn't know, I couldn't comprehend the roof could come off. It all happened so quickly.

"You think it can't come off."

As water leaked from the ceiling all over her home, Mrs Wright and her husband Laine grabbed their children and phoned emergency services.

"It took a while to sink in. I guess when the house started to fill up with water. The house, the carpet, everything is wet.

"The fire guys were able to move everything into the dry spots and put tarpaulins over it, they were amazing."

The roof on the Links Rd property came off above the dining room and kitchen, a child's bedroom, bathroom and garage.

The family were able to salvage many belongings thanks to the quick work of the fire department.

Looking through her home Mrs Wright said she was amazed that, despite the devastating damage in her own home, her neighbours seemed untouched.

"It was so isolated. It's really just our house."

Husband Laine Wright said he heard a loud crack so he ran and grabbed his children but did not know what to do. "You can understand a flood or fire [and what you should do] but wind you don't want to go outside in.

"It sounded like a train coming through. As soon as I heard the first crack in the roof I knew the roof was going. I yelled out to my wife Sharon to grab my son in the other room and grabbed my two girls and held them but was not sure what to do. It lasted about 10 to 15 seconds and it was all over and then you realised it was pretty bad."

Mr Wright said it was a sad reality to come home to yesterday but the family would move forward.

"Hopefully things will get sorted for us and come right."

The Wrights' neighbour, Chontelle Tantau, 37, said her whole house was shaking during the event. "I jumped up, looked outside and saw the carnage. I went to check the neighbours, thinking, 'Oh my God, I just want it to stop.'"

Luckily her home did not have any damage to it except parts of the Wrights' roof in her front yard.

A clean-up effort along Lodge Ave began at first light.