Mini-tornado rips up trees near lake Rotoiti

Helen Goodwin finds it hard to describe the noise which left her cowering in her bed.

"It was an eerie sort of sound ... a terrible moaning or roar. It was awful."

Little did she know at the time, but the noise she heard was the sound of a mini-tornado ripping up trees and destroying property around the edges of Lake Rotoiti.

Mrs Goodwin, who lives with her husband Wayne at Hinehopu, 28km northeast of Rotorua, was woken by the roar and a downpour at about 5.15am yesterday.

"I heard an almighty crash and then a bashing against the side of the house," she said.

"I was quite scared."

She got out of bed to find the power was out and a 15m-tall willow tree opposite her house uprooted, lying next to the road.

Debris from the tree and garden pots covered their front lawn, while trellis fitted to one side of their house lay in pieces on the ground.

She called her husband, who had already left for work, to come home and help her clean up the mess.

The brief, but severe, weather event has left the Goodwins feeling a bit uneasy.

Last July they were among the hundreds of Rotoiti and Rotoma residents affected by swarms of earthquakes which caused landslides and damaged homes.

Electricity lines company Unison's communications manager, Bill Hewitt, said the tornado toppled trees on to power lines and cut electricity to about 1200 customers in the district. Power was restored by 10.30am.

Metservice severe weather forecaster Bob Lake said the tornado was caused by a strong and fast-moving thunderstorm which came in from the Tasman Sea.

"It moved across the Waikato and ended up in the Rotorua area before petering out."

It is the latest in a string of tornadoes to sweep across the country this year.

On Monday a small tornado ripped through a street in Paraparaumu, north of Wellington, smashing car windows and hurling furniture into neighbouring properties.

At Easter Weekend a tornado wove a path of destruction in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, felling pylons, lifting roofs off homes and snapping thousands of pine trees like matchsticks.

In the same month, a tornado struck Greymouth without warning, leaving a 400m-wide trail of debris through the town.

Caption: Wayne and Helen Goodwin sit on a willow tree uprooted during yesterday's mini tornado.

- Daily Post