Good day to not go to work - tornado.

[Ianab]

Didn't go in to work today, at home with baby Lara, so I missed all the excitement. Yes I still have a work to go to, and it still has a roof and most of it's windows. Same cant be said for for the neighbouring buildings! I guess it was small by the standards of those super cell ones that I see from the US, but NZ building are built pretty strong, so it takes a fair wind to remove a roof. Pics sent in by my workmate - I picked the right day to have off

From my window.. the big square shape is the roof of the big hardware store at the seaward end of the street. The other pic is where it came from.


Looking up the street, shop verandas are gone from the right hand side buildings.



Dont know where this came from?



Cleaning up at the Govt housing office, the glass veranda and one of the big windows went.



The street outside my window, where I often park my car. SO glad it wasn't there today
 


Our building only suffered some broken windows downstairs, thanks to being mostly concrete and some nice big Oregon beams supporting the roof in place. As far as tornados go, it's not a big one, but a bit closer to home than I like 

No reports of any injuries, which is amazing considering the size of that piece of roof that was dumped onto one of the cities busiest streets. 

Cheers

Ian

[sawguy21]

  This in the middle of your winter, is this a frequent occurrence?

[Ianab]

Yeah.. middle of winter. We often get small thunderstorms blowing in off the sea and occasionally they drop a small twister. Not a common thing, might happen a couple of times a year maybe, and they usually drop into farmland. This one just happened to come ashore downtown.

Some more pics from the local paper at
http://www.stuff.co.nz/300752a23080.html

The little brown (and undamaged) building behind the fire engine in pic 3 is where our offices are.

Ian

[tree-farmer]

Amazing how it blew all the cars to the other side of the street without breaking them.... ;D

[sawguy21]

The cars were already on the other side of the road. ;D

[Ianab]

We drive on the other side of the road because the tornados spin the opposite way here ;)  :D :D

Although I said they aren't common... another band of rough weather has just past over and 2 more small twisters have hit 
It's just after nightfall so not many details yet, but main road is closed by fallen trees and there are some injuries reported, but nothing serious again.

Repair bill from the earlier one is estimated around $1million 

Cheers

Ian

(And staying under cover tonight ) ;)

[Ianab]

Rough weather overnight - 6 more twisters.

No serious injuries but 50 houses badly damaged around the province 

By my counting thats 4 years worth of tornados in the last 2 days, so we DONT want any more for a while!

Cheers

Ian

[J D in AUS]

Ianab hang in there!!  look like more tonight on weather map. is there many trees down.
We (aus)might have to come over & cut them up for roof timber for you   J D in Aus

[ronwood]

Ian,

A bit off the subject but I often wonder why in some countries you drive on the opposite side of the road than we do in the US.

Ron

[sawguy21]

It is a carryover from medieval days. A horseman would pass on the left so his weapon would be toward his opponent if he was attacked.
Apparently, the U.S.  adopted the current system from the horse and wagon days. The helper, for some obscure reason, would get off the left side of the wagon to watch for clearance as it passed another on the narrow roads. Early cars had the steering on the left, in the middle, and on the right but LHD was finally standardized. Interestingly, the U.S. and Canada are, I believe, the only two former British colonies to adopt it. Can you imagine the confusion if we had to switch at the border? :