My Account
The wind lifted the roof off a home in Stanmore Bay – Pink Batts ended up draped in a nearby tree. Many big trees were uprooted, including this silver dollar gum in Edith Hopper Park.
Eileen Williams was still feeling shaky the day after a storm brought a huge tree down on her Stanmore Bay home.
She was home alone at the time and says she drew the curtains and hunkered down in a corner of her lounge, which felt the safest when the wind was at its peak. She heard a loud sound “like bricks crashing down” but it was not until the next morning that she discovered a massive gum tree from a neighbouring reserve had fallen across the corner of her house, smashing the guttering and damaging the ceiling.
Eileen, who has lived in the house since 2003, said she had never heard a wind like it.
The storm, caused by a very deep low-pressure system, passed through the Hibiscus Coast overnight on April 10. It brought strong westerly winds that peaked at around 10pm – Metservice recorded wind gusts of up to 135km/hr in Whangaparaoa. It was around this time that a roof was blown off a house in Stanmore Bay Road and many trees were uprooted. Despite this, the local fire service reported a relatively quiet night “considering the wind”. A trampoline ended up in a tree in Army Bay, a roof came loose in Silverdale and a tree fell across the road in Lagoon View, Gulf Harbour.
Power was out in many areas and this caused Dairy Flat School to close on April 11.
Auckland Council’s priority the following day was to clean up trees that had damaged power lines, as well as clearing debris from roads.
As Hibiscus Matters went to print three days after the storm, several areas of the Coast were still without power as temperatures plunged.
