A mini tornado cut power in Granity on the West Coast this afternoon, but there have been no reports of injuries, police say.
Buller Electricity chief executive Eamon Ginley said roofing iron flew off, taking some power lines down. No power poles were damaged.
The outage affected all of Granity and the area as far as Waimangaroa for just over an hour.
At about 1.30pm, Mr Ginley said 30 Granity residents still without power, which would be restored this afternoon.
The Westport News understands a fireman asked for the power to be turned off as the powerlines had gone across the main road - Torea St - which was temporarily closed.
Hector resident Laurie Collins said firemen were directing traffic on Torea St.
Mr Collins said the area had had a few incidents involving strong wind gusts recently. His house was damaged about eight months ago when wind knocked his power lines down.
"It seems to be a very isolated burst of wind. You'll hear it coming - a crack bang it's gone. It's quite remarkable."
Westport community constable Paul Sampson confirmed there had been reports of a mini tornado about 12.30pm. There were no reports of injuries.
Call for warning sirens
Civil Defence says Buller needs sirens to warn of imminent threats such as tornadoes or tsunami.
Its submission to the Buller District Council's draft long-term plan recommends the council set aside $40,000 for a public warning system and public education programme over two to five financial years.
It said the money could come from ratepayers or council's disaster fund.
Dual speaker, solar-powered sirens would be installed on the Carters Beach tiphead and at Punakaiki. The sirens would be controlled from the council's emergency operations centre or from emergency service vehicles.
They'd be used to warn of tsunami, potential tornadoes, damaging hailstorms, severe windstorms, severe thunderstorms, significant floods, significant fire or a toxic chemical spill, the submission said.
The Cape Foulwind Fault, 8km off the Buller coast, is among Civil Defence concerns. "If a large earthquake at this fault generated a tsunami, then it would only be a matter of a few minutes before the local coastline was hit."
The Cape Foulwind fault caused a magnitude 6 earthquake in 1913 which generated a 1.5m tsunami, and a magnitude 5.9 quake in 1962 that did not cause a tsunami.
In the event of a distant tsunami originating from Chile, Buller would have 30 minutes' warning time from New Zealand sources in Fiordland and 12-15 hours warning from sources in Chile, the submission said.
Siren networks were in place in several parts of New Zealand, including Wanganui, Lower Hutt, Napier, Wanganui and parts of Auckland. Mount Maunganui, Tokoroa, Whangamata, Timaru and Shag Point also had Civil Defence sirens.
Fire sirens were used as Civil Defence sirens in Western Bay of Plenty, South Waikato, Tokoroa, Putaruru, Tirau and Whangamata.
Some communities used mass texting in conjunction with sirens, or in isolation. The public alert system at Shag Point involved a telephone tree, car horns, door knocking and verbal contact, the submission said.
- By Lee Scanlon and Koren Allpress of the Westport News
