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Firefighters were called to the house in Riverside Rd — near the Waimata Cheese factory— that was hit by lightning about 8.30pm.
”The people in thehouse told us they heard a loud banging noise when the lightning bolt struck their home,” Senior Station Officer Bernie Bull said. “The family said the lights in the house flashed on and off a few times and then went out.
”The two adults and two teenagers told the Fire and Emergency NZ crew they were ‘a bit shaken’ at the time.”
But they were “pretty calm by the time we got there”, Bull said.
No damage was caused to the house, apart from the electricity supply.
”They isolated the power after the lightning struck and called us,” Bull said.
A short but violent storm that hit the district on Tuesday night also featured heavy rain and hail. Photo / Roz Anderson Photography
”We used a thermal camera to check the roof void and other parts of the house, but found nothing of concern. We recommended they keep the power isolated overnight until an electrician could check the situation.”
The lightning storm also brought a close call for Bull’s daughter.
The 13-year-old told him she had been in a car parked outside a house in Grant Rd (not far from the Riverside Rod house) when a lightning bolt hit quite close to the vehicle.
”She said they saw a flash just outside the car and they were pretty shaken up by it,” he said. “So much so they went inside the house.”
Two peltings of hail came with the storm.
An Aberdeen Rd resident said he was standing at the doorway of his porch when a hailstone hit the polycarbonate Nova roof above him.
”I heard a loud crack and what was left of a hail stone landed at my feet. It ploughed right through the Nova, leaving a jagged hole about twice the size of a 50-cent piece.”
He later found another smaller hole elsewhere in the porch roof.
Reports indicate the hail was localised. Some areas of the city and district had none at all.
Coxco managing director Omi Badsar said their early-season squash crops were unscathed.
A spokesman for the apple sector locally said there had been no reports of substantial damage in the apple crops ”but there will be some isolated areas where some damage and minor crop loss has occurred”.
NZ Kiwifruit growers regional representive Tim Tietjen said they had not received any reports of damage with their crops.
”Nothing serious anyway, which is a massive relief. With fruit-set under way any hail would have been devastating,” Tietjen said.
”Fortunately all growers contacted have not been impacted, which is great news. It could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Maize crops also seemed to have come through the wild weather well, with no reports of significant damage.
A company spokesman said they were a long way behind with their planting programme anyway and the young crops could handle a bit of hail.
At the time of publication, no reports had been received about any impact on grapes or other crops.
