Footage of a damaged home and street in National Park.
One home was destroyed and others were severely damaged when a tornado tore through National Park on Tuesday.
Houses lost roofs, doors, and glass from the windows - and one was lifted from its foundations.
Power was restored to some areas of the small town in the Central Plateau by late afternoon, but reparation work continues and some residents were expected to remain without power overnight.
National Park resident James Parry was working at Tongariro Water when the tornado caused a blackout. Then his phone rung.
Home of National Park resident James Parry, destroyed by tornado.
"My wife said the house was gone and I thought she was joking," he said.
"I was shocked when I saw it, it still hasn't really sunk in. Obviously with no roof on, it's pissing down with rain, everything's wet and soggy - the house will be bulldozed."
Mr Parry's wife Karina just missed the effects of the tornado on the house, as she was backing out of the driveway when the major damage was done.
The side mirror of her car was smashed, but she was uninjured.
Mr Parry said the community support had been fantastic.
"People from all over town showed up to help us put stuff into bags like photo's, knick knack's and anything else we could get," he said.
He said that another house had been picked up by the tornado and landed in his backyard. Mike Smith has lived at his National Park home since 1965 and echoed what Mr Parry said. "I didn't see much from inside my house, but my neighbour came over and said 'look at my roof' and it was way down the road," he said.
"It was scary, you had to hold onto the walls or the doors or something, everything was just moving around so much."
Mr Smith said that he had never experienced anything like it in the town.
"It was just one big roaring noise, we've had storms before, but nothing as bad as this," he said.
"The police came down and got me because a concrete chimney fell down onto the roof of my house."
A Coromandel local holidaying in National Park has described watching a twister rip off a roof and tear trees out of the ground "in the blink of an eye".
Whenuakite local Damien Kenyon was sitting outside a home in National Park when the tornado ripped through the area.
He was on holiday and had rented a house in the area just for the one night.
"It was about 9.10am when it literally just came ripping through the area," Kenyon said. "It was quite a big tornado."
"I was just out on the veranda having a cigarette. It was just a few metres away from where I was sitting that all the debris landed," he said.
Witness Damien Kenyon said the twister left a mess of corrugated iron and trees in its path. Photo / Damien Kenyon
"It ripped up a trampoline and the roof of a house, which flew through the air and smashed into one of the buildings of the property we were staying in.
Kenyon said it also ripped up several pine trees from their roots and sent them flying with such force they would have impaled anyone who was in their path.
The force of the twister was intense, he said, but short-lived.
Kenyon said he had planned on visiting friends in Whanganui after his stay in National Park but was now thinking about delaying travels, for safety's sake.
"I don't really want to be driving anywhere in this," he said.
Alastair McKinlay, a builder in Raurimu, said he arrived at the National Park School near the scene of the tornado just after the incident.
He was going to do some maintenance at the school where his wife Tania works as an office administrator.
The school still has power and classes are carrying on, but a few parents have come to pick their children up, Mr McKinlay said.
