This family sleepout had its roof ripped off by a passing tornado. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today
Its corrugated iron roof was torn off as if it were paper and flicked 50m into a nearby field at the height of yesterday morning's tornado which tore through forests and across farms near Tarawera.
At the height of the howling wind which erupted "out of nowhere" around
3.30am, Colin Baker and wife Mandy could only sit, stunned, and watch the twister rip through nearby pine trees.
They were on the verge of getting their children up and out when the tornado simply disappeared.
"The whole house was shaking and there was this droning sound. I was thinking, 'Far out ... what's going to happen now?"'
What happened was an eerie silence and a bewilderingly clear sky.
"There was a half moon and we could see it clearly. It was really strange. No clouds, nothing."
It was only when it was light enough to see that the Bakers realised how close they had come to getting hammered by the full force of the tornado.
It missed their house by only 20m.
It had cut an ugly swathe through nearby trees and buffeted the play-hut.
One of their neighbours ended up having to shelter from swirling pine needles and debris after the twister blew a window in.
Mr Baker did a check of stock and fencing as soon as he could and while the animals had escaped injury, several fences had been damaged by falling trees and branches.
With the power off until about 4pm, the couple boiled the billy for cups of tea and biscuits during the day.
"We're in a valley here and never thought anything like that could happen."
He had been in the area for 17 years and never struck anything like it.
"Dad came up today to see what had happened. He was born here and he's 73 now. He said he'd never seen anything like it in his life. I can understand now how those people feel ... the ones you see on TV where there's a tornado. I don't want to know what it's like again ... once is enough," he said with a laugh.
Other residents in the Tarawera-Te Haroto region reported frightening winds but no major damage was reported.
"I think we just got lucky."
- HAWKES BAY TODAY
