A person has been freed after strong winds lifted and destroyed two caravans at a campground in the Far North this morning.
Emergency services responded to the incident in Tauranga Bay, located northwest of Kerikeri, at about 8.45am on Tuesday.
A resident, living near the holiday park, described the scene to 1News, saying she saw “swirling winds” moving across the campground.
“I heard noisy wind and looked out to see debris made of rubbish about 150m high in the air.”
Fire and Emergency NZ sent one crew from Kaeo and one crew from Kerikeri.
“We arrived to find the one person trapped and worked to extricate them, it has been confirmed that the person is now extricated,” a FENZ spokesperson said.
St John said it responded with one ambulance and one rapid response vehicle.
“One patient was assessed at the scene and is being transported to Bay of Islands Hospital in a moderate condition,” a St John spokesperson said.
MetService meteorologist John Law said a line of thunderstorms moved over the region around the same time the tornado was reported.
“It is possibly that as the line of thunderstorms moved over the region locally stronger gusts or tornadoes may have been present.”
Verification of tornadoes by radar was not always possible by radar imagery due to their smaller scale in New Zealand.
“Most observations of tornadoes in this country are confirmed by eye-witness accounts or by evidence of cyclonic, or rotating, winds in the aftermath of system,” Law said.
“Whether the damage caused was by rotating winds or straight-line winds, I am sure it was a scary time for the people on the ground.”
