4 days ago
School roof lifted and twisted in storm gales, house roof dumped blocks away
Konini Primary School in Wainuiomata had to be closed on Thursday, after the roof of its library was lifted in a storm.
Photo:
Supplied
Strong winds have lifted and twisted the roof of a school library, and torn the roof off a house, dumping it blocks away, as wild weather sweeps across the country.
Wild weather has been felt through much of the country, with strong winds taking out power lines at a number of places in the North Island, leaving hundreds without power.
Emergency services responded to 58 callouts for the top of the North Island, mostly for flooding and fallen trees.
In the Wellington suburb of Newlands a duplex in Sunhaven Drive was left uninhabitable when the roof was torn off it, and the residents had to be evacuated.
Firefighters worked at the scene in the early hours of Thursday morning, tying what they could of the roof down, but a lot of it ended up on another street two blocks away.
A house in Newlands had its roof torn apart in strong winds.
Photo:
RNZ/Mark Papalii
Just over 15km away, in the Lower Hutt suburb of Wainuiomata, the library at Konini Primary School was lifted in the storm overnight, between Wednesday and Thursday.
Pictures showed massive steel sheets and timber support beams twisted high up above the building.
The roof at Konini Primary School was badly damaged.
Photo:
Supplied
Parents with children at the school were warned to keep their tamariki home for the day: "Overnight weather conditions have caused major damage to the roof of the library, and it is at risk of coming off," the school said on Facebook, on Thursday morning.
"Due to current winds the fire service are unable to secure the roof safely."
However, during the day teams were able to repair the roof and waterproof it, and parents were told the rest of the school would be open on Friday: "Still lots of work to get our library and resource room usable, but it is safe for students to return to tomorrow."
In Newlands, a neighbour of the Sunhaven Drive duplex that lost its roof said he had been woken by loud bangs in the early hours, as debris hit his house.
Bingo Jayme said the corrugated iron structure was torn away and flew over trees and neighbouring homes, before coming down, just after 2am.
He had struggled to understand what had happened as he searched his property by torchlight in the darkness.
"I think somebody was watching over us up there, because if this landed in the middle of our bedroom there's a chance it would have ... you know.
"It was very loud and it's the entire roof all the way there."
From the scene, RNZ reporter Ruth Hill said the roof looked like it had been peeled back, and there were are bits of insulation blowing all over the road.
The roof from the Sunhaven Drive house was blown onto a property in Tamworth Crescent.
Photo:
RNZ/Mark Papalii
The damaged Sunhaven Drive duplex had pieces of roofing timber sticking up into the air and a council building inspector was looking at the property.
But, "I can't see them being able to come home anytime soon though, they have no roof," Hill said.
Insulation on the roadside after the Newlands house had its roof ripped off in strong winds.
Photo:
RNZ/Mark Papalii
Deanna Jones, who lives directly across the road from the house on Sunhaven Drive was woken at 2am by a loud noise.
"I heard it lifting off. A bit of wood came off and landed in the cul-de-sac. I think we've got some debris down the back because I heard it coming down our driveway."
Two fire crews were on the scene until about 3.30am.
"I think they were trying to work out how to secure it, because it's a two-storey property."
Her neighbour, Tiff Bock, was oblivious to the drama overnight.
"I woke up this morning and saw bits of insulation everywhere on the house, and I thought 'Oh, have I lost a bit of roof'?'.
"Then I looked out the window."
She was horrified to learn the roof had ended up on Tamworth Crescent, on the hill below her own home.
"It's going to be a bit of mess to clean up."
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