An Oturehua couple fled with their five children yesterday, fearing for their lives as high winds shattered windows and blew down massive pine trees around their home.
"It felt like the world was coming down around our ears. I've never experienced anything like that before," Jean Milnes said.
"Three or four mammoth old man pines were snapped in half and others were uprooted. It looked like someone had dropped a bomb on them. There were bits here, there and everywhere."
Some of the 125-year-old trees, about 60m high, fell within metres of the family's home, ripping out the power lines, and debris blown by the high winds broke all the windows down one side of the house.
Ms Milnes and the children - ranging in age from 2 years old to 10 - were inside at 9am as the wind gusts buffeted the house, while Ms Milnes' partner, Mike Tudor, was working in the yards near the house.
"I watched as a big pine fell down and then just ran home as fast as I could as two more trees fell. The noise was horrific and the gusts blew me over. I had to hold on to the rails to stand upright," Mr Tudor said.
"I was met by five very upset children, as you could imagine, and we put them in a room as far away from the end where the trees were as we could; and then decided it was best to get out, as it was pretty fierce out there."
A glassed-in porch shattered seconds after one of the children left it. Broken glass from shattered windows covered the floors of several rooms.
"Mike had to shift the power lines off the car so we could drive it to get out and we left in a hurry, hoping none of the trees down the driveway would fall as we drove along," Ms Milnes said.
"We were petrified but when you have kids, you try and keep it all together for them, so they don't get more upset, and they were already terrified.
"The noise was incredible, this big 'woomph' as the gusts built up, and you'd hear it coming and just brace yourself."
It was "sheer luck" the couple and children Boyd (2) and Harrison (10) Anderson, Ethan (6), Mia (7) and Justin (9) Tudor escaped unscathed, she said.
"Justin thought it was a terrible Father's Day for Mike, but really we were lucky."
The couple was staying with friends in Ophir last night and planned to take a closer look at the damage to the house today.
The house is insured.
On a brighter note, Ms Milnes said she been worried about the family's dwindling stock of firewood.
"Now we've firewood for the next few years, so that's a bonus."
