Mangawhai tornado: Huddled in the hallway as wind roared through the house

• A severe storm with tornado-like winds hit Mangawhai and surrounding communities in Northland just before 3am.
• Two people have been seriously injured, homes have lost roofs and hundreds of homes are without electricity after power lines were felled.
• The beachside town in Northland was busy with holidaymakers visiting for the public holiday Anniversary Weekend.

Christelle Hynd arrived at her parents’ Mangawhai property to house-sit just hours before all hell broke loose outside.

She and her daughter went to bed but at 2.30am, she was woken by thunder, lightning and rain.

“I couldn’t find their cat so I had the ranch slider open just enough for the cat to come through if it needed to,” she told the Herald.

All of Christelle Hynd's parents trees were "ripped out of the ground" during the tornado. Photo / Christelle Hynd

“I could hear everything getting louder and was thinking: ‘It’s getting really bad, I should probably close that door.’

“All of a sudden the curtain just got ripped out and flew outside and I was like ‘okay, that’s not right, that is way too strong’.

“I closed the ranch slider and I could just see the trees starting to bend.”

Hynd ran to wake her 11-year-old daughter.

“We just huddled in the hallway until it was over. I was trying to get away from all the windows because we have trees on that side of the house and I thought if they go, they’re straight into those glass windows,” she said.

“The sound – just the sound of trees breaking and the wind just roaring through the house, it was so intense. And then it was over.”

Christelle Hynd and her daughter huddled in the hallway as far away from windows as possible. Photo / Christelle Hynd

Hynd went to look around and saw trees blocking the ranch slider.

Her parents have a row of trees along one side of the property and they had been “ripped out of the ground and fallen over”.

Others had “snapped in half”.

“And then it went over to our neighbours and tipped over his 20-foot container – which was full. That was completely sideways. His garage was sucked out, his garage door.

“And then the neighbours further up, their houses were destroyed ... so we actually got lucky compared to that.”

Hynd was living in Hobsonville when a tornado swept through the area in December 2012.

She was at work but raced home as soon as it happened.

“The trees were just snapped in half and every curtain in that house was ripped out, like outside,” she said.

“I wasn’t there as it was coming through – so this was a different experience ... but it was just like deja vu.

The aftermath of the tornado. Photo / Christelle Hynd

“I’m like, what’s the chances of it happening twice – and I just got here last night too. I’m actually glad it wasn’t my parents here though.”

“I’ve never seen her that scared ... we were shaking. I couldn’t help it – I was trying to be really strong, but we were, like, both shaking in the hallway. It was so scary.

“It sounded like the roof was gonna come off. Afterwards, she just couldn’t sleep – she was like, ‘I don’t want to go to sleep Mum, it’s gonna come back’.”

The shared driveway of Hynd’s parent’s property is blocked by fallen powerlines so she will have to stay put for the time being.

Her parents are on their way home and will organise a generator for the house.

Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz.