Remarkable that Mangawhai tornado didn't claim any lives - minister

Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell has toured a Mangawhai street devastated by last Sunday's tornado, saying it is remarkable no one died given the scale of the damage.

Mitchell, who also met emergency responders during Friday's visit, said the outcome would almost certainly have been worse if the twister had struck during the day.

"I think what saved us was the fact that it was 3am. If it had been during daylight hours, with the sort of missiles that we've seen and the velocity they were moving at, I think we would have lost people."

Mitchell said he was thankful Tina Johnson, who was severely injured when she was sucked out of the top floor of her home on Old Waipu Road, was in a stable condition in hospital.

The minister told Kaipara council leaders the government would help pay for the clean-up and emergency housing for displaced residents.

It was not yet known, however, how much the government would contribute, or where the funding would come from - though the Ministry for the Environment was one possibility, Mitchell said.

Kaipara mayor Craig Jepson was also surprised the tornado's toll had not been greater.

"I'm really thankful we didn't have any deaths. I find that actually quite miraculous. If it had been at 3pm when there's kids out in the streets, there would have been deaths all right."

Jepson, who joined the minister during Friday's visit, said he was struck by the tornado's sheer power.

"I've been around a few storms in my life. I was up north for [Cyclone] Gabrielle. There was a major weather event in '81 when I was a young fellow up in Kerikeri. But I've never seen anything as ferocious ... I visited people who had concrete lids sucked out of their water tanks and they couldn't find where they'd gone.

"Half the clean-up is people clearing up debris from other people's properties. It just was scattered everywhere. The power of this event is the thing that's hit me the most."

Jepson said he had been heartened by the community's response.

"One thing that really struck me on the morning was the huge number of volunteers that just poured into the streets and helped people they didn't even know. They mucked in and helped each other. It was a real testament to the closeness of this community."

Some homes will be demolished

Kaipara Civil Defence and Emergency Management controller John Burt said it was initially thought that 50 homes had been damaged, mostly on Moir Street and Old Waipu Road.

He said 90 homes had now been assessed for storm damage.

Of those, 26 had been white-stickered, which meant they had some damage but could be safely occupied, while nine had been yellow-stickered, which meant access was restricted.

A few homes would have to be demolished, Burt said.

Mangawhai's power network had been fully repaired but five homes were too damaged to be reconnected.

Homeowner feels traumatised

Residents visited by Mitchell on Old Waipu Road included Nick and Penny Berthoud, who illustrated the tornado's human cost.

The couple had spent two years building their dream home and had lived in it for just a year.

The power of the tornado had blown outdoor furniture - some of it so heavy it needed at least four people to lift - through the kitchen windows, while tiles from a neighbour's roof had turned into projectiles, puncturing the cladding and steel roof in dozens of places.

Shards of glass were embedded in the kitchen wall and a pole from two properties away had pierced an external wall like a spear.

Penny Berthoud told Mitchell that despite all the effort that had gone into building their home, she was unsure if she could live in it again.

"I don't know, if I'm brutally honest. After the trauma of what we've gone through, every inch of this house is a crash reminder."

Nick Berthoud said they were woken up by strong winds and heavy rain shortly before the tornado hit.

"Then the wind and rain stopped for about five, ten seconds. I got this eerie feeling, then all of a sudden it was like a turbine starting up, like a plane taking off. Just hell broke loose. Glass flying, smashing, furniture going everywhere."

Nick Berthoud said they took shelter in a walk-in wardrobe. Neither they nor their 15-year-old son were injured.

Once the wind subsided he heard a sound he thought at first was their missing cat.

He then realised it was his neighbour screaming from her carport roof, where she had landed after the tornado sucked her out of her bedroom.

"So I bolted out the door, jumped the fence, and found her," he said.

Within 30 seconds he was joined by a group of neighbours searching the street for anyone who had been hurt.

Mitchell also visited James Taylor, who had a business on Old Waipu Road where he designed websites, printed signs, and made vehicle graphics.

When he arrived at the leased shed that morning, little more than the steel framing remained.

All his equipment and stock had been destroyed or blown to who knows where.

"It was like a bomb had gone off all down the road. It was crazy.. But you've just got to find a way to stay positive, and come back, and don't let it beat you."

Taylor said the emotion of losing his business had really only hit home on Friday.

However, he had been buoyed by offers of help from the Mangawhai community, and was determined to rebuild his business.

Mitchell said the tornado was different to the eight other emergencies he had been involved in since taking on the role a year ago.

"The thing with this one is the huge challenges it posed, because it was so sudden, no one could really anticipate it. There were power lines down. Access was very hard for first responders, and people were shell shocked. But there's always a big human cost associated with these events, and not just with the initial response, but in the recovery as well," he said.

Mitchell said extreme weather events were likely to become increasingly frequent in future.

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