Tornado does serious damage to homes in National Park Village. / Supplied by Louis Van Wyk
Seven properties in National Park Village have been red-stickered after a tornado swept through yesterday morning, meaning they are unsafe to enter.
The twister hit about 6.30am yesterday and destroyed one house in the village, which is near Mt Ruapehu. Several others were also severely damaged with roofs and doorsripped off and windows smashed. One was torn off its foundations and dumped several metres away.
Urban Search and Rescue staff inspected the properties to see if they were structurally sound. They red-stickered seven properties and yellow-stickered another six, which indicates they are risky to enter.