Tornado leaves at least two dead in New Zealand
0 
At least two people have died and several people were injured after a freak tornado ripped through a shopping mall in the north of New Zealand's largest city of Auckland Tuesday.
Police and emergency services were responding to reports of a tornado that caused damage through the Auckland districts of Albany and the city's North Shore areas.
More than 20 people have been taken to North Shore Hospital for treatment, while others are being taken to Auckland Hospital.
Parts of the roof of the Albany Mall and other buildings were damaged, police said.
The WeatherWatch website reported the tornado most likely had winds averaging 200 km per hour.
The site's head weather analyst Philip Duncan said damaging tornados of this strength did occur every few years.
"We've had reports of cars lifted and thrown, roofs taken off and trees uprooted, which is consistent with an EF1 or EF2 tornado - winds averaging somewhere between 180 and 220 km per hour," he said.
Duncan said the threat of further tornados in Auckland Tuesday has eased, but the risk had shifted south into the Waikato, Coromandel Peninsula, Great Barrier Island and Bay of Plenty areas. Waterspouts were also possible around Great Barrier Island, the Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty.
The tornado was just a fraction of the size of those that hit the United States, leaving more than 300 people dead, last week, the site said.
Local resident Gregg Wycherley told Xinhua that several stores were missing parts of their roofs in the mall and many vehicles were "absolutely smashed".
"Cars are upside down - they looked like they've been stomped on by a giant," he said. "It couldn't have happened in a worse place -- a couple of hundred meters in either direction and it would have passed through farm paddocks."
North Harbor Rugby commercial manager Richard Turner told the New Zealand Herald newspaper he watched as the tornado traveled across the roof of a nearby shopping center.
"We were watching debris fly around. One of the girls said: ' that's a car.' We thought 'It can't be a car.' You could see pretty big objects, trees and things, circling around."
Turner said the tornado headed off to the motorway and was "so intense it was unbelievable".
Rob Crawford told the Herald the scene was "surreal". "I think, It's a movie set. Is this real? Is this happening? But when you see people lying on the ground, covered in blood, clutching their heads, it's damn real."
Kate England told Herald: "The first 10 seconds I was just in shock. It sounded like a bad car crash."
She said she watched from her window as a grey car was lifted 20 feet up in the air.
Police said emergency services were still assessing the situation and they advised residents to stay home and avoid travel unless it was absolutely necessary.
St John Ambulance has 13 vehicles working in the wider Albany area.
In the wake of the destructive tornado that struck Auckland's North Shore, Civil Defense has issued a warning that further tornadoes could strike.
Go to Forum >>0 Comments