Jul 28th 2008 6:20pm
Waikato Times
Roofs Fly as Storm Hits Te Aroha
REBECCA HARPER
Roofs were ripped from 12 Te Aroha houses forcing families to flee their homes as the weekend's 'rare and nasty' storm ripped through the Waikato.
Te Aroha fared the worst in the Waikato with roofs blown off, power poles flattened and mature trees uprooted, but the brunt of the destructive storm was felt in Northland and Auckland.
The worst storm to hit the country in a decade was described by the MetService as 'particularly rare and nasty'.
Thames Valley Civil Defence emergency manager Del Read said 12 homes in Te Aroha lost their roofs on Saturday night and three families had to be evacuated and re-homed. 'As far as damage to houses, that was the worst hit area.'
Te Aroha resident and golf club course committee convener Graeme Marsden said the golf course was 'a bloody mess. At a guess there are 50 to 60 trees damaged, either down or broken'.
The club buildings escaped undamaged, but the course would be closed for at least a week to clear the trees - including huge pines and macrocarpas.
'This is by far the worst we've ever had,' he said.
Te Aroha fire station deputy chief Geoff Edwards said it was 'pretty messy all over town', as people awoke yesterday morning to discover the damage left by the storm.
'We've got roofs, chimneys, trees, sheds disappearing off site - some of them we don't even know where they are. It's pretty scary.'
The station received 74 call- outs on Saturday night and was continuing to receive them as people found damage to their property.
This morning the clean-up had started. 'We're going around this morning and starting to pick up things like bits of corrugated iron and trees that are floating around.'
At its peak 15,000 homes around the Coromandel Peninsula and Hauraki Plains were without power. This morning Powerco Network operations manager Ross Dixon said about 200 customers scattered about the Hauraki Plains were still without power.
'Our people in the field have done an excellent job restoring supply to around 39,600 affected consumers in the past day and a half in areas including Whitianga, Coromandel town, Whangamata, Kerepehi and Waihi Beach.'
Mr Read said all roads in the region had reopened by midday yesterday, but there were plenty of slips and debris for motorists to navigate. The last road to reopen was SH2, the Karangahake Gorge between Paeroa and Waihi, which was closed because the Ohinemuri River was dangerously high.
Fire communications shift manager Steve Smith said the storm was not as bad as expected. There were about 190 call-outs in the Waikato and about 300 jobs altogether in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions.
A house fire in Morrinsville about 2.30pm on Saturday in the middle of the chaos was one of the biggest problems for the fire service.
At Te Mata, near Raglan, the Steedman family woke up yesterday morning to find their trampoline missing from the lawn. Sue Steedman said it was later spotted about 12 metres up a macrocarpa tree - where it is still firmly stuck.
'There are lots of barns without roofs and little sheds that are no longer there ... it was really, really windy.'
The storm also made its presence felt in the Central North Island on Saturday, where up to 10,000 skiers were evacuated from Ruapehu skifields and the Desert Road was closed by snow.
The body of canoeist James Moore, 33, who disappeared while paddling in stormy seas off Mt Maunganui, was found about 11.30am yesterday.
Further south at Opotiki, two men on board fishing boat San Cuvier died after it grounded in heavy seas early yesterday morning.
Credit:Waikato Times