Tornado sends pig flying

A tornado sent a pig flying through the air in South Canterbury yesterday.

The tornado struck about 2pm yesterday afternoon near Waimate and ripped the roof and much of the second storey away from the 140-year-old rented home of Dennis and Denise Fahey and their two children.

A local resident said a kune kune pig in a yard next to house was also picked up by the tornado and flung through the air landing unharmed in a nearby paddock.

A jet boat was badly damaged.

The house is now off limits and the Faheys were last night staying with friends while another home was found for them.

The house's owner Charles Ruddenklau described the tornado as the sort of thing usually seen only on television.

"It was only sheer good luck no-one was killed," he told the Otago Daily Times.

"If anyone had been in the house, they would have probably died."

The fire service had to pull down chimneys left perched precariously on the building and insurance assessors will have to decide whether to rebuild the home.

Waimate deputy mayor Jim Rayner told the newspaper he thought the tornado was going to wreck the town the same way one did in Greymouth last year.

"I have to admit I was pretty nervous because I didn't know what to expect it did hit Waimate."

Nearby the Faheys' home the roofs were ripped off sheds and hail stones the size of golf balls fell.

- NZPA