Cyclone Gabrielle: Pōkeno family forced to flee in early hours after tree crashes into home

* Cyclone Gabrielle: Follow our live updates

* Cyclone Gabrielle: All you need to know today

* Cyclone Gabrielle: When will the bad weather end in your region?

A family was forced to flee their Pōkeno home with three young children in the early hours this morning after a “massive” pine tree crashed into their house.

When Codie Lyn and her family went to bed at 12.30am, she already knew something was off. “My kids were gonna sleep downstairs and I just had a feeling because there’s a few trees around us and I thought no, you can all sleep upstairs in the lounge.”

They had to flee early in the morning. Photo / FIle

At 2.15am they awoke to “this horrible noise of smashing glass and like cracking of trees” from a large tree hitting the side of their home.

“I knew what had happened... and I just knew that my kids were upstairs and I just needed to get to them. So I just ran up the stairs and they were crying and screaming. And I was just yelling, ‘it’s okay, it’s okay I’m here, it’s okay’ and then I realised there was glass everywhere and a tree had come through.”

The tree came smashing in after 2am.

The tree had hit the side of their three-storey A-frame house and slid down, smashing all the windows down that side of the house and taking out the deck on its way.

It also crushed two of their cars, she said.

“If it was over slightly more, it would have gotten right on top of my kid and there was glass all over the bed he was sleeping on. So he’s very lucky he doesn’t have any scratches.”

If the house had a flatter roof, she believes it would have gone straight into the lounge where her children were sleeping.

Just some of the damage from the massive pine tree.

Immediately they grabbed their children, pets and bedding and called a friend to stay with.

Lyn said she drove via flooded roads to her friend’s home and was safe there.

“They’d set up beds for us, and got out some munchy food.”

A family in Pōkeno had to leave their house with three young children in the early hours of Tuesday morning after their house was damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Lyn told the Herald they have already called their insurance provider and begun cleaning up the broken glass.

“Now we’ve just got to sit and wait to see what we can do.”

Firefighters spent the morning attending callouts across the area involving fallen trees.

No one was home when a large tree crashed into a Papatoetoe home, damaging the roof and guttering.

In a social media post a resident thanked the “community heroes” for their “quick response” to the situation at their home.

No one was home when the tree struck the Papatoetoe home. Photo / Jason Oxenham

The tree fell through a house on Ngatai Rd on Monday night. Photo / Emma Houpt