Flying animals and torn off roofs is how some residents of a small rural west Auckland community will remember last week's storm after gusts of over 200km/h ripped through the region.
"Four legged" and owner Andrew Dronjak Photo: RNZ / Laura Tupou
Andrew Dronjak, who has lived in Bethells for 30 years, said it "all went to custard" about 9pm on Tuesday.
"The roof lifted and straight away created a vortex in the bedroom but I grabbed the dog [and] we both ended up under the bed and held on for grim life."
He and his dog named "four legged" stayed under his oak bed frame until first light when he could assess the damage to his property, Mr Dronjak said.
"It picked up two sheep and threw them against the fence and killed those instantly.
"Some sheep ended up in another guy's paddocks and the fence was still intact so obviously they went over the fence," he said.
"Two-hundred-year-old pine trees came down all across the driveway [and] I couldn't get out for a couple of days."
At its height, more than 90,000 Auckland properties were without power and 1500 were still waiting to be reconnected, power company Vector said.
Yesterday afternoon, much of the power was restored to Bethells Beach but what's left was still going to take some time to clean up.
Mr Dronjak said his employer gave him time off and he has taken lots of photos for his insurance company.
But the most concerning part of the ordeal was discovering how much a break down in communication links made things more difficult, he said.
He said if it wasn't for the fire station and the strong community, he would have struggled.
"Everyone had meat going off in their fridges so we just rallied up the barbecue at the fire station and had huge community barbecues and fed hundreds of people," he said.
"We had a big generator plugged into the fire station, so we had hot showers and hot food."
Cooking facilities and children's activities used while power was out to most of the Bethells Beach community Photo: RNZ / Laura Tupou
Fire chief Peter Grundemann said Civil Defence, the Red Cross, the community response group and members of the public had all contributed to a successful hub at the Bethells Valley rural fire station.
Bethells Valley rural fire station acted as a community hub after the storm, fire chief Peter Grundemann said. Photo: RNZ / Laura Tupou
And its 20 volunteer firefighters had been working around the clock.
"The main issues were not being able to get out of the driveways," he said.
"We had some people with roofs being taken off and then just not having water, not having toilet facilities, and just helping with that has been our main objective."
The rural station has been open for the public to have hot showers since Thursday - two days after the storm ripped through Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Laura Tupou
So the fire station transformed into a space for the community to eat, shower and for children to play.
Four-and-a-half-year-old Yakob Wagner-Stevenson said he had been playing hide and seek and drawing with chalk at the fire station.
Since the storm he had not slept in his bed, he said.
"We're near pine cone trees and they're really big and they might fall on us, so we sleep either in the lounge or at Victor's."
The station will be open to the community until at least Wednesday, fire chief Peter Grundemann said.
Yakob Wagner-Stevenson said he hadn't slept in his bed since the storm. Photo: RNZ / Laura Tupou
