Community comes together to help victims of the big blow

Residents of one Mount Maunganui street pulled together after Thursday's tornado tore through their neighbourhood.

When the Bay of Plenty Times visited Links Ave yesterday morning several teams were removing damaged trees, moving people and their belongings and picking up rubbish and debris from the road.

Murphyne Raquel was at home, with her partner, Jonathan Gear, and nephew, Mikaere Raquel, when the tornado ripped past their property, taking their roof and shattering windows throughout the house.

Mr Gear and Mr Raquel were watching TV in the lounge while Ms Raquel was in her bedroom when she started hearing rattling noises.

"I thought it was an earthquake but there were ... noises. The closer it got, the louder it got.

"I came out of my bedroom while my partner and nephew came running out of the lounge and the glass from the two smashed windows in the lounge was in the air ... pretty much following them out the door.

"That was quite freaky, it was like the glass was going for them.

"[It was] very, very scary. We didn't realise the roof or anything had gone.

"There was an instant blackout. We didn't know what to do, so we just left the house and ran up to my mum's."

Returning to the property on Friday morning, Ms Raquel was surrounded by friends, family, community members and emergency services removing unprotected belongings from the home and patching what they could of the house.

"I don't care about any of this [the damage]. I just care nobody was hurt."

A few houses down, Tegan Allen, 29, had just arrived home from dinner with her mother and grandmother when the tornado blew past.

"It sounded like a plane was taking off. It was incredible, the sound. I had to physically put my hands on my ears. I told my partner to grab the cats and get in the bath. I thought there was going to be an earthquake because it built up as it got closer and closer.

"The house was shaking. It was freaky."

Luckily the only damage to the property was superficial, she said.

Ms Allen said it was awesome to experience such a strong sense of community yesterday as people checked on each other. Her yard was cleaned up by mid-morning.

Ruth Keber