Two dead as tornado hits New Zealand city

A freak tornado hit New Zealand's largest city Auckland on Tuesday, killing two people and injuring dozens more as it ripped the roof off a suburban shopping mall.Packing winds of 200 kilometres an hour (125 miles an hour), the twister hit the suburb of Albany without warning at about 3pm (0300 GMT), flipping cars and uprooting trees as it carved a trail of destruction stretching for kilometres. Television footage showed huge pieces of roofing and debris flying through the air after the tornado hit, sending panicked locals fleeing for shelter.

Witnesses said the tornado sounded like "a giant vacuum cleaner" when it tore across the Albany Megacentre, one of the largest shopping centres in the country.

Auckland mayor Len Brown said two people were killed and dozens injured, adding the death toll could rise.
"We've had two confirmed fatalities, it's absolutely disastrous," he told Radio New Zealand.
The tornado is the latest in a string of disasters to hit New Zealand, including two earthquakes in Christchurch, the second of which claimed more than 180 lives, and a colliery explosion last November in which 29 miners died.

Witness Rob Crawford said the scene around the shopping centre resembled a disaster movie after the tornado, which passed over in less than 30 seconds.
"Car parks scattered with the remains of trees, upturned cars. There's iron off the roof... it's surreal," he told the New Zealand Herald.
"It's a movie set. (You think) is this real, is this happening? But when you see people lying on the ground, covered in blood, clutching their heads, it's damn real."

One witness told Sky News that cars were crushed with people inside.
Shop worker Martin Sibrits said the resulting devastation looked like a bomb site.
"It was simply unbelievable, it was huge. I could see bit pieces of iron flying through the air, 100 metres up," he told Fairfax Media.

The Auckland city council said an emergency centre had been set up to coordinate relief efforts, while police urged people to stay indoors. "We encourage people to return home, contact family if necessary. Leave roads near Albany commercial area free for emergency services," police said. New Zealand Metservice meteorologist Peter Kreft said the tornado hit without warning and the damage stretched for kilometres, with the eye of the storm measuring more that 10 metres (33 feet) wide. He said such twisters were relatively rare in New Zealand.

"Tornadoes in New Zealand are typically of that size, they're nothing like the size that are observed in the Midwest of the US," he told Radio New Zealand.
"So while it's a tragic and devastating event for the area it's passed over, in the broader scheme of things it's a relatively small tornado."
Another tornado struck Albany 20 years ago in May 1991, killing one man who was hit by debris while he was driving a bulldozer.

At least 22 dead as tornadoes rip across U.S.

The worst tornadoes to hit parts of the United States in decades have left 44 people dead, stripping roofs off houses and tossing mobile homes into the air like toys, emergency officials said Sunday. The trail of destruction began on Thursday evening in Oklahoma, where a giant twister almost wiped out the small town of Tushka -- population 350 -- tearing up most of its homes and businesses and killing two elderly residents. The storm system strengthened and expanded on Friday, whipping up hundreds more tornadoes that barreled through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and North Carolina, before petering out in Virginia on Saturday night. "It's the most significant damage by a tornado since the early 80s," Governor Beverly Perdue told reporters in Raleigh, capital of worst-hit North Carolina, where 23 people died.Among seven people killed in Alabama were a mother and her two children sheltering inside their mobile home when it was thrown some 500 feet (150 meters) into the woods, landing on its roof.

Seven others died in Arkansas, four in Virginia, and one in Mississippi. Falling trees snapped power lines and came crashing down on cars and houses, killing occupants and causing widespread damage. Witnesses described hailstones the size of grapefruit.

"This is the worst storm, tornado-wise, since 1984," Patty McQuillan, a spokeswoman from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Raleigh, told AFP. 1984 saw the most destructive tornadoes in more than a century, with twisters sweeping through Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, killing 57 people and injuring more than 1,000. "I actually do remember the last one," said McQuillan. "I believe that the destruction may even be greater this time than it was in 1984." More than 60 homes in North Carolina were destroyed and more than 400 others sustained heavy damage. Aerial footage showed a vast Lowe's home improvement store obliterated with no roof and flattened walls.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life," Perdue told local media. "There is a tremendous amount of property damage and damage to people's lives. The hardest is for the people whose lives have been devastated."
The governor declared a state of emergency on Saturday night to loosen up federal funds for what promises to be a long and painful recovery.
"The state of emergency allows the governor to deploy the necessary assets to respond to and recover from the storm and it's also a prerequisite for asking for federal disaster assistance," explained McQuillan.
The biggest toll in one area was 14 in North Carolina's Bertie County, which has a population of less than 20,000, according to the last census figures.
"We've had hurricanes, we've had floods, but we've never seen the loss of life we're seeing here," county official Zee Lamb told CNN, describing the vast complex of tornadoes that tore through the area.
"It was estimated about a half-mile to three-quarters of a mile wide and it lasted for about six to eight, 10 miles through the county," Lamb said.
Sam Bennett, 35, and his wife had just put their son, who turns two next week, down for a nap when they realized the storm was bearing down on their building in Raleigh.
"We hustled the dogs and the baby into the back rooms," Bennett told AFP. "It got louder and louder and we heard a couple of booms and the fire alarm went off."
The ceiling above them collapsed and water came pouring into their apartment, but the Bennetts could count themselves among the lucky ones -- at least they survived and their home is salvageable.
"The tornado outbreak led to a total of 241 tornado reports in 14 states over the three-day period," said Meghan Evans from Accuweather.com. "This will likely rank this tornado outbreak among the largest in history."
The meteorologist said there had been three main contributory factors: a powerful jet stream, abundant moisture and a strong cold front plowing across the South.
"A powerful jet stream helped to enhance the thunderstorm growth, while moisture surging in from the Gulf of Mexico acted as fuel for the thunderstorms."
Though more fatalities occurred in tornado outbreaks in 2008 (57) and 1985 (76), experts believe this weekend could have set a new record for the number of twisters over a three-day period.
It is feared the damage will run into the billions of dollars.