The Kāpiti Coast has been hit by a tornado this morning, with homes damaged and a teenager who had been sleeping in a sleepout injured.
It’s the fourth tornado in three days around the country, followed by a tornado in Auckland on Sunday, one in the Tasman region yesterday afternoon, and one in Waitara in Taranaki early this morning.
Today’s twister hit Paraparaumu about 5.30am.
Stephen Hudson, assistant commander of the Wellington fire district, said a 16-year-old was asleep in a structure that was completely destroyed.
He has been taken to hospital for an assessment but is not believed to be seriously injured.
Up to 20 properties are reported to have been damaged in Paraparaumu with roofs blown off or lifted, while one house was lifted off its piles.
Hudson said the number could increase once drones had finished assessing the damage.
“A lot of them might be just windows blown and a small amount of roofing iron may have lifted. Whereas we’ve got some here that have been severely damaged with structural damage and obviously the full roof being removed.”
Power lines are also down, while several trees have been blown over and fences destroyed. Fire and Emergency said the first calls for help were made about 5.30am.
FENZ would continue to work with Kāpiti Coast District Council throughout the day to provide assistance to those who need it.
Cormac Bryce, 21, lives at the home which was lifted from its piles with his sister - who was sick with a stomach bug - and mum Moira, who was working at the time.
“I was still lying in bed, sort of half awake and then I’ve just heard this... I thought it was an earthquake at first because it sounded like the noise that an earthquake makes when you can hear it coming and it’s just sort of rumbling and then the power went off.
“But then it just got louder and louder and then it was like an explosion of rushing of wind and then the house was shaking and, windows were rattling and then then I just heard shattering glass and, banging and crashing.”
He got up and turned the lights on.
“I was just like, ‘Oh my God, it’s just like a freaking bomb’.
“There was just glass everywhere and I could see a piece of roofing iron had come through the windows and it turns out it fell from the neighbor’s house, their entire roof is gone and, it’s strewn all over other people’s properties.
“It’s sort of snapped the aluminum on the ranch slider and torn the whole wall away from the floor.”
He said firefighters had asked the mother and son to leave the house.
The family were still looking for their two cats. They also had two dogs, which were “traumatised.”
Moira Bryce said she rushed home when her children told her of the tornado.
“I couldn’t get to the house though because there was a tree down on the road opposite and there were so many fire trucks blocking the road. So I had to just leave my car and run up here.
“It was dark and it was still raining and windy. We were just using our phone lights to try and see what was going on. The dogs are going crazy. I was worried about them getting cut paws.
“When we got more light, we could see that the wall has actually moved off the floor and is now leaning on the deck and the council and the builders and that have said that that’s actually quite a big issue, especially if we get more strong winds through here.
“They’ve said that structurally it’s unsafe with that wall being buckled like it is and that it’s not, it’s not safe to stay here tonight, especially if they get more winds through.”
She said neighbours had been coming over with buckets and brooms to help with the clean-up, and offering to make cups of tea and coffee for the family. They were trying to figure out where they could stay and what they could do with their fridge and freezer full of food, since the power was off.
“I’m a single mum and I already work long hours and have a lot of stress and, and so it’s difficult having to deal with this on top of everything else.”
Kāpiti Coast resident Darrel Sutherland said there was “a hell of wind” then a loud bang as the power went out.
Another resident, Elizabeth Heffernan, said “It just sounded like a train coming though, the loud roar woke me up. It gave me a fright.”
Hannah Furfie, who lives on the corner of Linwood Ave and Arawhata Rd, said the tornado woke her up.
”It was like a rumble, almost like an earthquake. We had lifting roofing iron, some door damage and trees were damaged.”It was pretty hectic for 5am.”
Sam Dunnett said it was “just chaos” after roofing iron was blown around his street when the tornado arrived.
“It started with heavy rain and then all I heard was just a huge crackling and crunching sound and it sort of shook the house but that was just our big tree coming down.
”I got up and did a lap around the house and there was iron all through the yard, just debris everywhere.
”It sounded like it hit the house, it was that loud.”
Dunnett said the tornado lasted for around a minute. He said some of his neighbours’ windows were smashed, and he’d heard that at least two roofs had come off.
”We’re pretty lucky that it’s just a clean-up for us but I think some of the neighbours aren’t saying the same thing.”
A FENZ spokesperson said: “The tornado was reported to have first hit in Nikau Valley, before making its way out to sea.
“Fire and Emergency crews are working with residents to make their homes safe, including providing salvage sheets to cover their roofs. If residents need urgent emergency assistance, they are urged to call 111 and ask for Fire and Emergency. If they do not need urgent assistance, then Fire and Emergency asks residents to contact Kāpiti Coast District Council.”
FENZ assistant commander Martin Wilby said they would be deploying drones to assess damage.
“We’ve been told that, it appears the tornado was bounced six or seven times at this stage.
“Tornadoes won’t go on a straight path, at times they will bounce.”
East Tamaki and Flat Bush in Auckland were hit by a tornado on Sunday night. It struck around 9.30pm and caused roofs to lift off of homes and toppled trees.
And 50 homes were damaged after a tornado tore through Tasman on Easter Monday, lifting roofs, downing huge trees and snapping road signs like twigs.
It hit about 1.20pm with the worst-hit area in Upper Moutere.
A tornado also hit in Waitara in Taranaki about 1.15am today with a roof lifting off a house. Two FENZ crews attended to provide assistance, with both leaving the scene by 1.57am.
Waitara local Devin Rapana found her trampoline flung into a neighbouring property.
”I thought it was just a big gust of wind, it was noisy as... but then it went dead quiet.”
The tornado woke Rapana up just before 1am and she said several of her other neighbours on the east side of Waitara were impacted.
”The neighbours fence has blown down,” Rapana said.
A house on her street had its roof ripped off by the storm and another home’s sliding doors got lifted off the hinges and the windows smashed.
A Waitara woman said the sound of the tornado ripping her roof off was like “a freight train at full speed.
”She was asleep with her two kids and her partner when the storm started to accelerate and woke her up.
”I heard the noise of the wind first, it was getting louder and louder.
”All of a sudden it was quiet, like the eye of a storm,” she said.
A slow ripping noise followed, and then the roof of her home was suddenly tossed off.
”My kids came running into my room and we stayed in the room until everything had died down.
”When they went outside the found the roof of their home on the side of the road.
”It’s quite a big mess,” she said.
The family are unable to stay in the home while it is being assessed for repair, but are grateful to be safe.”[I have] very mixed emotions, you really cant put it into words”, she said.
Metservice meteorologist Alwyn Bakker said without picture or video evidence it’s very difficult to confirm tornadoes, but conditions in the Taranaki area certainly make them possible.
”There has been busy, active weather.”
The Taranaki region had 379 lightning strikes yesterday, and another 15 from midnight to 6am today according to Metservice. The region has a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for six hours from 2pm-8pm on April 11.
NIWA Principal Scientist Chris Brandolino said the number of tornadoes that have hit the country is unusual but not unheard of.
He told AM that on average, the country sees 7-10 moderate to strong tornadoes a year. Signs a tornado had ripped through could be told by the pattern of debris and damage. Spread out damage suggested wind would have been swirling where damage in a line would indicate straight-line wind damage.
”You can have tornado-like damage without a tornado. It is unusual, it is not unheard of.”
He said we are in an active weather situation right now where the air is more warm and humid.
”That’s providing the juice for tornadoes.”
To get a tornado there also needed to be wind sheer which is where the wind changes direction as it ascends. Brandolino said there is another line of thunderstorms heading towards the North Island today. Places to watch for thunderstorms are Northland, Auckland, Taranaki and Manawatu.
”These showers and thunderstorms will be continuing through the week. They’ll be gradually easing but still with us.
”Brandolino said the weekend should be nice but next week more rain would hit the country.
”There could be another heavy rain producer.”
Yesterday, MetService warned of “vigorous thunderstorms” currently moving on to the Kāpiti Coast.
“And we’ve received reports of 10mm diameter hail. The Wellington rain radar is still being upgraded so there isn’t proper radar coverage, but there is some gnarly weather out there despite the lack of rain echoes.”
MetService’s Bakker said of today’s weather event: “What we can say is that there have been damaging wind gusts. And enough people have called in about it.”
Bakker said thunderstorm watches and warnings were in place for the areas identified to be at risk.
”Part of the issue is thunderstorms are unpredictable, and locations are not usually specific for tornadoes. Thunderstorms generally happen when we have warm air on the ground and cold air above ground, warm air goes up triggering severe conditions.
“A moderate risk of thunderstorm continues for Kāpiti Coast this morning and eases during the day.”
Bakker said there was widespread thunderstorm activity going on all over the west coast.
”We do have pretty widespread thunderstorm activity going on. Buller and Westland are in for damaging winds and thunderstorms. The whole west coast of the country from Waikato to glaciers on the West Coast, everyone there is at risk of thunderstorms.
”As risk area shifts in the afternoon from Kāpiti, risk picks up for the northern half of North Island and remains for Westland.”
'The Expressway will reopen once the clean-up is complete, which may take a few hours.'