Brian Harding thought he had seen most things in his 70 years until he got up early this morning for a trip to the toilet.
Minutes after he got back into bed a tornado ripped across the small Waikato town of Cambridge and tore the roof off the back of the house he has lived in for 33 years.
The wind sent roof tiles flying for up to 300 metres up the road. Roofing iron from other houses was scattered around the neighbourhood and left hanging in trees.
The tornado left a gaping hole in the roof of the nearby Cambridge Tavern and a waterlogged bar.
Mr Harding said part of his roof hit a car parked in the tavern and broke its window.
He said the noise of the approaching tornado was fearsome.
"I am 70 and have never heard anything like it in all my life. It sounded like a rumble, a real loud noise. It is hard to describe what it sounded like."
Mr Harding quickly threw some clothes on, grabbed a torch and went outside where other worried neighbours inspected the damage after the tornado had swept through town.
"I thought a few tiles had lifted but come daylight there was no roof. There was just the battens and paper. Half of the upstairs has water coming in.
"It is a split level house and the whole back roof of the upstairs has gone."
Mr Harding said a house across the road had been condemned after severe damage and another house in a nearby street had lost its entire roof.
He said it was a very scary time.
"We live upstairs and it was right above our head. It was lucky nothing drastic happened. We were very lucky we weren't injured."
Mr Harding said his house was insured and today the Fire Service covered the damaged roof with tarpaulins.
At the nearby Cambridge Tavern, manager Connie Graham was trying to get the bar back in action for a function tonight which she said she did not want to cancel.
She said the damage to the roof was " quite bad.
"It is over our main bar and water is just pouring through."
She said she got a call at her home, five minutes from the tavern.
"I got a hell of a fright. It was very scary."
She said no staff were at the tavern when the tornado struck.
At daylight assessors found major damage to 15 to 20 houses after the tornado swept in a straight line through Cambridge from the west to the east, said Nicki Davidson from the Waipa District Council.
The tornado missed the central business district but badly damaged the Oakdale Rest Home and a service station.
By late morning parts of the town were still without power. An 80-year-old oak tree, which was ripped out of the ground, blocked a street but was removed at first light.
Ms Davidson said there were no reported injuries and no damage to the water or sewerage systems.
"It did not go for very long but what it did do was quite nasty," she said.
She said, ironically, the tornado struck only a few hours before an emergency expo opened in the town. Emergency and support services from Cambridge were at the expo to look at the best ways of handling an emergency in town.
