Aorangi Road resident Cormac Bryce was at home when the tornado struck.
Video / Mark Mitchell
A teenager has a collapsed lung and severe cuts after being impaled when his sleepout was sent airborne and crushed by a tornado earlier today.
Rhiley Stevens, 16, is awaiting surgery to remove a piece of his bedroom which became lodged in his chest when it fell in on him this morning as a tornado tore through Paraparaumu.
His mother Jade spoke to the Herald from Wellington Hospital and said the sleepout was lifted by the high winds, and then dumped back down and destroyed.
“He’s lucky to be alive – the whole bedroom is just completely destroyed.”
New Zealand has been hit by four tornadoes in three consecutive days, with no other reported injuries but property also damaged in East Auckland, the Nelson region and Taranaki.
In the early hours of this morning, Jade Stevens said she heard the wind tearing through the property and ran to fetch her youngest son, 12-year-old Cooper, when suddenly she saw Rhiley at the back door.
“It was so dark, but there was just blood pouring out of him,” she said.
“Cooper grabbed the first aid kit and we ran into the bathroom where my partner and I stemmed the blood while we waited for the ambulance.”
She was full of praise for the ambulance service who she said arrived extremely quickly to help her family. Her son, she said, was in good spirits all things considered.
“He wants to keep the piece that’s in there, he said ‘how are we going to rebuild the sleepout without it?’” she said through laughter.
Jade Stevens said she has lived in the area for 20 years and has never seen anything like this before.
“It’s just so surreal ... you never think of this sort of thing happening to you.”
She said her son’s partner was coming to the hospital, as well as her own, and she expected Rhiley would remain there at least until the end of the week.
Her third son Jacob, 14, was in Martinborough with a friend, but Jade Stevens said she and her partner have been in the process of building him his own sleepout.
“Rhiley doesn’t have a bedroom anymore at all – and I just can’t imagine what it would be like if it was both of them.”
Up to 20 properties are reported to have been damaged in Paraparaumu with roofs blown off or lifted, while one house was lifted off its piles.
The destructive twister first hit in Nikau Valley at 5.30am, touching down six or seven times before making its way out to sea.
Properties damaged by a tornado on Aorangi Road, Paraparaumu. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Stephen Hudson, the assistant commander of the Wellington Fire District, said the number could increase once drones had finished assessing the damage.
“A lot of them might be just windows blown and a small amount of roofing iron may have lifted. Whereas we’ve got some here that have been severely damaged with structural damage and obviously the full roof being removed.”
Kāpiti Mayor Janet Holborow told the Herald she had heard about Rhiley’s injuries and extended her sincere condolences to his family.
“It’s just absolutely terrifying.”
She had not spoken with the family at the time she spoke to the Herald but had wished Rhiley a speedy recovery.
