Fire and Emergency received more than 50 calls for help as the capital was battered by torrents of rain, large hail, gale-force winds and surface flooding yesterday.
Between 3pm and 9pm Tuesday FENZ received 51 weather-related calls for assistance, with the majority of them coming from Lower Hutt.
A spokesperson said the calls were mainly about roofs lifting in the wind, broken windows/glass, powerlines down and trees blocking roads.
MetService issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the wider Wellington region just before 3pm yesterday, with the wild weather hitting within minutes. It lashed the region ferociously through the afternoon before moving further north.
At 9pm last night the severe thunderstorms which affected Gisborne and northern Hawke’s Bay throughout the evening began to weaken and move offshore, but “a few thunderstorms with heavy rain and hail” were still expected into the night, MetService said.
🌩️🟡 Severe Thunderstorm Watch Update
— MetService (@MetService) December 12, 2023
The latest update (5:35pm) clears the risk across the lower parts of the North Island but the watch remains in Tararua District, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne/Tairawhiti until 9pm tonight.
Full details https://t.co/jRxTG7MWdi pic.twitter.com/C2a13gp1Qy
Hutt City mayor Campbell Barry told the Herald there was “quite a lot of cleanup work done overnight” which will continue this morning.
“Overnight, three buildings, commercial buildings were secured by Fire and Emergency New Zealand, one residential house in particular where there was quite a bit of damage done.
Council teams will be out today assessing the damage just to make sure that they are obviously safe and we can get people back into them as soon as possible, with the repairs that will be necessary,” he said.
Barry confirmed council completed various welfare checks overnight.
“We know that there were a small number of residential properties that people weren’t able to go home to last night.”
So that’s absolutely a top priority today, but again, it’s a relatively small number, which is a good thing, but for those who have been impacted, obviously quite significant for them.”
Barry told the Herald despite the damage, he was grateful there weren’t any serious injuries.
”There were some minor injuries, where people did need to go into hospital, but it doesn’t appear that there are any significant or serious injuries, which is really positive.”
Metservice meteorologist Lewis Ferris told the Herald, despite earlier reports, they’re still unable to confirm whether the severe wind was a proper tornado.
”We don’t want to completely discount some people seeing the rotation and thinking that it may have been a tornado, but from what we have seen, it did kind of look more likely that it was really an intense gust front.
It’s very hard because the system was moving so quickly the radar signals don’t exactly support it being like a fully-fledged tornado,” Ferris said.
Lower Hutt residents yesterday described the situation as chaotic with trees down across roads and scores of shop windows smashed.
Many reported a tornado ripping through buildings. MetService meteorologist John Law told the Herald yesterday a tornado was “certainly not out of the question, but hard to confirm”.
Law said winds had “packed quite a punch” with windspeeds at Wellington Airport hitting 98km/h, in Lower Hutt it reached 96km/h and on Mt Kaukau gusts reached 128km/h.
Partner left work to check on car parked in central Hutt and got a surprise 😳 Mirror and aerial gone but that’s mostly it thank goodness pic.twitter.com/0cn3en97VO
— Dairne Neverwhere (@dairnemorrigan) December 12, 2023
“My car was lifting and my boy was screaming, it was just like your typical Hollywood blockbuster,” one Lower Hutt man said during the tornado.
Police confirmed multiple roads were blocked in Hutt Central by downed trees, and there has been extensive damage to cars and homes across the region.
A worker at Queensgate in Lower Hutt said several police, fire and ambulance vehicles responded to the shopping centre.
“I can’t see into the centre but a lot of that has been based around the exit point for Countdown, which is based in the mall,” they said.
Well, it *was* a good day in Wellington.
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) December 12, 2023
Wait for it... pic.twitter.com/hXW03a4YtP
The worker said heavy gales blew glass out windows of some stores.
They said seeing the weather escalate was “quite freaky” after conditions didn’t look that threatening yesterday morning.
“All of a sudden it just hit. There were quite a few people who were very afraid because it was very noisy but we were all safe inside,” they said.
More than 2000 properties were left without power in the Wellington region for a few hours, lines companies Electra and Wellington Electricity announced.
Several people required medical attention yesterday, including two that needed to be hospitalised and a report by Hutt South MP Chris Bishop that two children have been injured.
Wellington Free Ambulance said its staff responded to several weather-related incidents in the Lower Hutt region yesterday afternoon.
The majority of patients were treated at the scene.
Two patients were transported to Hutt Hospital by Wellington Free Ambulance, one in a serious condition and one in a moderate condition.
Bishop took to Facebook yesterday evening, expressing his concern for two kids who had been injured in the tornado.
“Really concerned to hear about the tornado in the Hutt today, and particularly worried about the two kids who have been injured - I hope they recover quickly,” he wrote.
Bishop said it sounds like there will be a big cleanup job amid the aftermath of the weather event.
“One of the best things about the Hutt is seeing people step up to help each other, and I know today’s storm will be another great example of that,” he wrote.
Bishop later took to social media announcing the roof of his electorate office had collapsed in the storms. The damage to his offices on Bloomfield Terrace, Hutt Central, occurred around 3pm yesterday.
“There was a roof here this morning. #huttnado,” Bishop posed on X, formerly Twitter shortly after 8pm.
https://t.co/UuXXcH6V06 pic.twitter.com/H1yBXXDt3X
— Christopher Bishop (@cjsbishop) December 12, 2023
Bishop again took to social media shortly before 10pm last night, revealing photos of the tornado’s aftermath.
“Quite a bit of damage via #Huttnado. Luckily and thankfully it seems no loss of life,” he wrote.
Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.
MetService Severe Weather - June 23 - 28. Video / MetService