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"It was terrifying ... it was like you see in the movies," was how a shaken Hawkes Bay woman, Mandy Baker, described a violent tornado which tore its way across forest and farmlands between Te Haroto and Tarawera on SH5 early yesterday.
Yet as quickly as the twister appeared and shredded trees, tore down fences and felled power poles, it disappeared - leaving stunned residents in the rural region to await the dawn light to check their properties.
"It was all over in about 10 minutes ... the roar was terrible ... just this swishing sound," Mrs Baker said.
"We looked out the window and could see it ... this funnel, swirling."
The tornado struck just after 3.30am, sending branches and pine needles hammering into Mrs Baker's house. In the eerie silence that followed she was fearful there would be a huge slip as heavy rain had been falling. While the twister missed their house directly, it blasted close by a neighbouring property - breaking windows and sending outside furniture flying.
The twister snapped the tops off mature pine trees and uprooted others. Four power poles were toppled, dropping lines across SH5. Police closed the road down to one lane.
Sergeant Wendy Wright said truck drivers were seen edging their way through the affected areas despite arcing power lanes lying across the road.
Unison engineers were on the scene quickly and began removing and replacing the damaged poles. The company's customer relations manager Danny Gough said about 100 homes lost power, although all but about a dozen had it restored by 10am.
Mrs Baker said they were still without power: "But we've got food and water, we'll be right."
She and her husband, who have lived in the Te Haroto region for many years, had never seen anything like it before.
"And we don't want to see it again."
A MetService spokesman said tornadoes were rare in New Zealand, and impossible to accurately predict. They were caused by a combination of factors driven by unstable weather conditions, with cold air hitting warm, and were more likely to emerge during thunderstorms.
There had been driving rain and strong winds in the Tarawera region throughout the night.
"Now it's all calm here," Mrs Baker said. "I just need to get it all cleaned up."
- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY
