<font color="0000ff">Tornado hits Greymouth
10 March 2005</font>
A tornado has ripped through the West Coast town of Greymouth today.
Police confirmed a tornado went through the town and officers were dealing with the situation.
A woman answering calls at a Radio Scenicland ZM said she had been told a large truck was overturned, parts of an engineering business demolished and a service station partially unroofed.
"I watched it out the window, and saw all these sheets of glass and iron flying around," she told NZPA.
Meanwhile, the AA reported that high winds were hitting State Highway 73 between Arthur's Pass and Springfield - a major route to the West Coast - advising drivers of high-sided vehicles to take extreme care.
St John's Ambulance in Greymouth said they had had two calls for people with minor injuries.
No details of the injuries were immediately available.
A staff member at the Caltex service station in Tainui St, Claire Murphy-Klempel, said a nearby video shop had been "destroyed".
She said part of the service station forecourt was blown off, windows blown out, cars damaged, a fence demolished and branches stripped off a pohutukawa tree.
"It was huge – massive – I could see the iron flying around."
A Grey Hospital spokesman said staff were expecting "one or two" injured people.
Around 100 residents of Kowhai Manor retirement home were being evacuated.
"It's got half its roof off," Grey Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said.
"There's a lot of destruction – the tornado's come in from the sea and it's gone right through."
Mr Kokshoorn said the roof of Dispatch Engineering – one of the biggest buildings in town – had lifted and came flying through the air towards him as he drove away from council chambers.
"I couldn't believe it – I just dived into the back seat."
In June 2003, about 20 businesses were damaged when a tornado cut a swathe through downtown Greymouth and caused damage costing more than $300,000.
One building, in Albert St, was suffered such severe structural damage in the June 16, 2003 tornado that it was made unusable with the winds causing the back wall of the business to bow.
The 2003 tornado swept in off the Tasman Sea at about 9.45am, wreaking havoc on the western end of the central business district, snapping concrete power poles and knocking over street lights.
A similar tornado ripped through Greymouth in the early hours of March 28 2001, wrecking houses.
No one was injured then, but glass shattered and iron buckled in some homes.
