Tornado tears up homes

Press, 26 December 1987, Page 1

Tornado tears up homes

PA Auckland Terrified residents ran for cover from flying glass and branches as a tornado savaged seaside homes in the Auckland suburb of Howick yesterday. More than 30 houses near Howick beach were hit by the violent storm, six of them seriously damaged. Large windows were smashed, holes punched in walls, and huge pohutukawa and pine trees crashed to the ground. One woman retrieved outdoor furniture from two houses along the road. A man was taken to hospital with chest injuries after falling from a ladder. He had been trying to rig tarpaulins over his damaged house. The Auckland marine radio station at Musick Point took wind readings of 67km/h, with gusts of up to 80km/h. Most residents had been relaxing after Christmas dinner when the tornado struck about 4.30 p.m. They could do little more than flee to back rooms as the storm swept in from the sea. “It was a real mad scramble to get away from the front of the house,” said Mr Brian Saunders, who had been visiting his parents-in-law, Tony and Yvonne Adlam. “Everybody just dashed in different directions — up the hall, behind the kitchen bench, you name it. I piled into the pantry with my mother-in-law right behind. It was incredible. It just exploded around us,” Sliding glass doors along the exposed front balcony of the house were blown in and a section of the roof lifted. Seaweed from the beach below was strewn about the floor. A settee was sucked out of a side door. The Blackledge family watched helplessly as the windows of their sunroom shattered. A teenager, Nicole Blackledge, said: “The windows just caved in, then the wind raced through the lounge, the hall and out the back door.”