Tornado in Auckland: Horror moment tornado smashed fencing on to family in bed

New ZealandUpdated

19 Jun, 2021 06:58 AM3 minutes to read

Damage to Ana Johansson’s bedroom in Papatoetoe. Photo / Supplied

A two-year-old girl is lucky to have escaped with only cuts to her face after being hit by a fence panel that flew across the street before smashing through the bedroom window and landing on top of her and her mother.

The little girl’s mother Ana Johansson said they were in bed with her husband and their 4-year-old when the heavy rain turned into hail.

Windows were destroyed and the roof was ripped off Ana Johansson’s Hayward Rd home when a tornado tore through. Photo / Supplied

Surprised by the intensity of it they opened a weather app to see how much rain was falling – but suddenly became caught in the middle of a scene that could have come straight from a movie.

“In a matter of seconds there was something flying through our window. All I could hear was smashing glass.”

What the mother-of-three didn’t realise at the time was that the object was a section of a fence from a house across the road.

Damage to Ana Johansson’s bedroom in Papatoetoe. Photo / Supplied

“It landed on me and my daughter,” she told the Herald.

“I screamed, my husband jumped up and moved whatever came through our window and grabbed my daughter and moved us to the back of the house.

“It was pretty scary. I think I was in complete shock and I couldn’t stop crying.”

The 35-year-old Hayward Rd resident said her daughter, who was sleeping at the time, seemed more upset by her reaction than the impact of the item.

“She didn’t make a noise. I think she just reacted to me screaming.”

Most of the glass in Ana Johansson’s home was smashed when the tornado blew through. Photo / Supplied

Her four-year-old, who was on the far side of the bed, escaped injury, as did her six-year-old who was in the bathroom.

“My daughter has some cuts on her face from the glass.”

She believes the net curtains and blinds helped protect them – slowing the impact of the fence panel as it flew through the window.

“It happened so fast. I didn’t see the wood coming through, it was only later I saw it was a fence from across the road.”

Ana Johansson’s Hayward Rd home lost its roof and had most of its windows smashed. Photo / Hayden Woodward

It was only when they returned to the bedroom later on that they realised how close they had come to being more seriously injured by the section of fence and all the glass on the bed.

“One of the posts penetrated the headboard wall and left a hole there.”

It wasn’t just the bedroom that was damaged.

“All of the windows in the main bedroom, family room, ranch slider in the lounge, some of the windows in the dining room and the kitchen were smashed.

“The roof of our house has totally blown off, the pergola has been ripped apart and some of the posts on the deck have cracked.”

Windows were smashed and curtains destroyed when debris flew into Ana Johansson’s Hayward Rd home. Photo / Supplied

She said fences had also been damaged.

“It really is like a scene out of a movie.”

Her family have taken the children to safety and she and her husband are now focusing on tidying up what they can of the house and trying to make plans for alternative accommodation.