KEY POINTS:
As Irene Elvy was standing in her kitchen, a mini-tornado was cutting a destructive path towards her home.
It had already snapped a power pole near Mt Maunganui's Omanu Beach, and as it moved inland, the twister began picking up branches, roof tiles and other debris.
By the time it reached the 84-year-old's flat 1km away, the swirling mass was powerful enough to shred her roof and rip her front ranch-slider out by the frame.
"I just heard a bang, nothing else, and then it was quiet," Mrs Elvy said.
Her new carpet was left littered with glass, and her roof and the roof of the adjoining flat were destroyed.
A house around the corner lost its fence and conservatory, and on Mrs Elvy's street a large tree was uprooted, thrown in the air, and dumped in the centre of the road.
Emergency services were on the scene minutes after the twister hit at 10am yesterday, and spent several hours securing five damaged properties in three streets with tarpaulins.
The ranch-slider frame at Mrs Elvy's home was also retrieved from the other side of the road, and replaced as insurance assessors arrived.
No one was injured by the twister, but a 27-year-old man was forced to swerve in his car to avoid it.
"It was coming towards me," said the man, who did not want to be named. "I had to take evasive action."
The man said the twister was about three-quarters of the width of the two-lane road, and was carrying letter boxes and rubbish.
The MetService said the twister could be classified as a mini-tornado because it was not as large as a full-scale tornado, and had been generated by strong wind off the coast.
As well as the wind, heavy rain hammered Mt Maunganui, central Tauranga and surrounding areas.
At Omokoroa, north of the city, three houses were evacuated after a slip in front of one of them threatened to send the buildings down a hill.
Max Rutland, a resident at the property where the slip occurred, was outside putting covers on the lawn to protect it from the rain when the earth gave way.
"It just went down the hill in a great rush. It happened that quickly, just like a heap of timber falling on to the road."
Waihi Beach, meanwhile, was cut off by flooding and people were evacuated from two houses and the Beachhaven Holiday Park.
State Highway 2 through the Karangahake Gorge between Waihi and Paeroa remained closed last night, and had been shut since 6am, when 1m of water spilled on to the road from the swollen Ohinemuri River.
