DESTROYED: Les Ison and his sons Brad and Adam survey the damage after Sunday morning’s storm.
“IT was just like a freight train hitting the house,” said Terara residents Les and Shannon Ison describing yesterday morning’s wind storm that caused widespread destruction as it cut a path along Terara Road.
At the height of storm a calf hutch from a nearby farm was launched through the kitchen window of their house.
“There was just a huge bang and smashing and shattering glass and there was a calf hutch in the window,” Mr Ison said.
“The house was just shaking, I’d never seen or experienced anything like it,” Mrs Ison said.
“It hit and was gone in a matter of minutes.”
But the damage was extreme.
A number of trees alongside the shed from where the couple runs a plumbing business took a direct hit from a fallen tree. The side wall was blown in and roller doors were blown out, bent and twisted.
“Sure, we suffered from damage but everyone is all right, everyone is safe and that is the main thing,” Mr Ison said.
As well as being concerned for the safety of their sons Brad and Adam, the couple were also concerned about elderly neighbour Bob Wakeling, who lives by himself.
Although the 75-year-old slept through the wind storm, his property suffered extensive damage to a shed while a number of trees came down on his house.
“What a mess, where do you start,” he said.
“It’s devastating.”
By first light the clean-up had started with a host of family and friends stopping by to help.