Wipari Henwood: Fire and Emergency Northland District Manager on the Mangawhai Tornado

Major clean up is happening today in Mangawhai after a severe tornado rolled through the Northland town. 

Fire and Emergency Northland District Manager Wipari Henwood said emergency crews were not expecting the tornado. 

"I've had a look at the MetService reports and there was nothing mentioning severe thunderstorms," he said.

Henwood said the emergency was also understaffed. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Big clean up happening in Munga Fire this after what
they think was a tornado ripped through Sunday morning about
three o'clock. Two people seriously injured, around fifty homes and
buildings damaged. We party Henwood's Fire and Emergency Northern District Manager,
good morning, Good morning. Any damage overnight, any rain to
existing damage?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, a couple of showers overnight, but I think I
don't think it worsens anything much, you know, for the
current state of some of those properties.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
How did that woman get sucked out of her home?
It was an incredible story.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah. I mean I wasn't there at the time, but
obviously our crews when they arrived there, you know, she
had some considerable injuries. So I don't disagree with what happened.
And if you looked at their house, you know it's
been totally devastated. So if it was a tornado, then
you know, I'm not disagreeing. But yeah, there was carnage

(01:02):
on her property and the neighboring property.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Did you guys expect the tornado? Were you expecting bad weather?
I've had a look at the Met Service reports and
there was nothing mentioning you know, severe thunderstorms from what
I could see.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, no, I mean we will always monitor the weather,
and I suppose that's the one fickle thing about the thunderstorms.
You know, you can never determine the location or the
in intensity. So yeah, it was out of the ordinary
and definitely cooked as part of the community.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Did you have enough staff.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
On So initially when we started getting the call, so
you know, shortly after three o'clock in the morning, it
wasn't how many staff. It was getting staff to the
to the residents. So for an example, mung A fire

(01:55):
station got the first call. The chief of us was
the think they're waiting for his people are tune up
and they couldn't get there. And so our common sen
realized that straightaway he started sending appliances from all other
locations from around the district to help respond so they
could actually gain access. So from Wipe Kaiwaker Mangitor to

(02:19):
walk work in Rasford to try and to try different
alternate routes and so yeah, it was it took a
long time to actually get to get anywhere. For some
of the residents. Fiveflight said to get out of their
trucks and walk just because of the you know, the
damage that was left by the wake of the tornado

(02:40):
going through, trees down and power lines all over the place.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Speaking of power lines, what do you know about people
cutting the cutting the power lines on their own driveways?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Look what we I had to drive yourself, I mean
I didn't. That wasn't obvious to me. You know North
Power where there were going in the afternoon. So I'm
not one hundred percent sure, but there was, you know,
it was all I can tell you. There were power
lines either with.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Sounds like we party, thank you for that, we party
hereward fire an emergency North London. For more from the
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