Kathleen Te Rina Parekura was stunned as she watched a shed being blown to pieces and across a nearby paddock by strong winds yesterday.
She and her whānau were at Ōtūwhare Marae in Ōmaio.
“It was scary to see actually,” she says after filming the incident.
“We were thinking it could have swayed our way but luckily it didn’t.”
There was flooding in Te Tai Rāwhiti too, caused by more than a month's worth of rainfall in one day.
Some residents were forced out of their homes in Gisborne as 200 millimetres of heavy rainfall fell, almost three times the average for November. A state of emergency was declared as the floods spread.
Gisborne District Council civil defence emergency manager David Wilson says welfare and civil defence centres were set up in three different areas in Gisborne including Te Poho o Rāwiri marae.
“But we still have a number up the coast, whānau who need assistance.”
A callout squad from Gisborne Surf Lifesaving had IRB boats in some parts of Gisborne, such as Sponge Bay, to help evacuate local residents due to flash floods and landslips.
“It's been consistent rain for a day and a half now and it was meant to let up already but it hasn't to date,” Justin Martin from the Gisborne Surf Lifesaving group says.