No one was sure whether the sou-westerly blast that stripped the iron roof off a house in Awanui on Saturday evening was a tornado or just an especially vicious squall, but whatever it was, it did some damage.
Dale Johnson said she was unwell, and just about to go to bed upstairs at her Gill Road home when the upper storey began shaking. It was bad enough to send her downstairs for safety, but it wasn't until a neighbour pointed out what had happened that she realised most of her roof had gone.
Sheets of iron were spread far and wide over several paddocks, some sheets tangling in power lines (cutting power to about 10 homes, whose supply was restored by 11.30pm), others landing on neighbouring properties. Two trampolines went flying, one landing in a tree and the other in a paddock across the road.
No other homes suffered significant damage, but a number of fences were flattened.
Dale, who moved into the house in May last year (having left Christchurch prior to the earthquakes), said the wind had lasted perhaps a minute or two. As darkness fell, she was moving her bed downstairs in the expectation that it would soon start raining again, but the Kaitaia Fire Brigade came to the rescue, covering the roof with a tarpaulin to keep the weather out.
