Call for housing help after tornado tears up Levin homes

The Horowhenua District Council is appealing for anyone with spare housing to help out people displaced by Levin's tornado.

Of the almost 40 homes hit on Friday morning, eight homes are now uninhabitable and seven yellow stickered. 

Twenty more homes still need to be assessed by council. 

Residents today were still cleaning up, on the phone agian to their insurance provider and waiting for a building assessment. 

Strathmore Avenue is home to some of the worst hit houses.

Local resident Joe sped over to his brothers home on Friday to make sure his niece and nephew were okay.

The house's roof had been damaged and water was coming through the electrical on Friday. 

"All that [council] can do is just try and get the assessors out as quick as they can and get people in safe houses" he said. 

"I worry about this house because it's had the water through it, and it doesn't take long for the mould to grow... we are in winter now so the quicker [the building assessor's] can get some stuff sorted is better for everyone" 

More than five blocks away on Goldsmith Cresent, electricians were still on scene repairing damage to the powerlines.

For most of the day on Friday power was out to the neighbourhood.

Jim Larson's home wasn't hit as bad as others on his street, but he and his wife were still in shock.

"I knew straight away it was a tornado, but we don't get those here, you know? And there's nowhere to go... you can't run down to the basement."

"Just for a few seconds there as the house was shaking I felt like a sitting duck... I thought, we're gonna go."

Larson said it had shocked him to see the amount of damage that happened in less than 30 seconds, as he counted.

In the days since, the community had banded together, Larson said.

"The response from the services has been incredible - you know, the fire brigade, civil defence, just everybody rallying."

"it's incredible... great Kiwi spirit"

Welfare checks had taken place over the weekend. 

Emergency Management Advisor and Councillor Ross Brannigan said some people were too overwhelmed and hadn't reached out for help.

"This is about people, these emergency responses," he said 

"Buildings can be replaced but there is an emotional attachment for the owners or occupants, but it's about the welfare of the people." 

Brannigan said it was a relief that no one had been seriously hurt, or worse, by the tornado.

Council putting the call out for spare housing for those displaced

The council has a backlog of 20 homes still to assess, and almost 40 calls for help cleaning up things like trees and fences.

Council Chief Executive Monique Davidson said everyone who had to abandon their homes had places to stay right now.

But she stressed that some were going to need medium-term accommodation.

"We are in a housing crisis, where we do have limited options across the district and so certainly a message would be that if people know of homes we could potentially connect people to, that would be really appreciated."

Davidson said an incredible amount of donations from the community had topped up the Mayoral fund for people who were going to need financial help.

The council and central government had each put $100,000 into the pool. 

Davidson said the money would go towards helping people if things were uninsurable, or if they didn't have the resources to fix something. 

She said an example this morning was a family without hot water amongst damage to their property, and Council through the Mayoral Relief Fund were able to deploy an electrician and plumber to help.  

"It may seem like this is a private matter, but the generosity of council, central government and community means that for our families most impacted we are able to make life a little easier and assist in their time of need." 

The council expects to get its backlog of house assessments cleared by end of tomorrow.

Busy week ahead for repairs

Meanwhile, roofers, electricians and construction workers have got a busy week ahead fixing all the damage. 

Peter from W and A Sheetmetal was dismantling a busted cricket cage today. 

"There's a lot to do really. We made these cricket cages a couple years ago and one of them's been thrown and mangled so we've got to make another one... so yeah it's all on this week"

He said roofers were really busy too.

Electra has confirmed all power outages which were a result of Friday's event have now been restored.