Unlike some of their Levin neighbours, the Fonoti family can stay in their house despite the tornado damage.
The Fonoti family's front room is boarded up and drafty. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
They may not have a red sticker on their door, ruling their home uninhabitable, but the destruction wrought by the twister a fortnight ago exposed them to the chill winter winds while they wait for their landlord to sort the repair.
Five people live in the Weraroa Road rental.
Their bedrooms aren't damaged, but windows to their living room are boarded up, after the glass was smashed, and damaged carpet has been pulled up, exposing floorboards, though which drafts drop the temperature.
A pile of damaged furniture sits out the front. The family isn't sure what to do with it - they weren't insured.
Gladys Fonoti said the living room ceiling is pretty well falling in.
"It's pretty cold at nights, to be honest. All the air's coming in."
So the shivering family waits.
"We're just waiting for the owner to fix it and waiting for help for cleaning up all the stuff," Roy Fonoti said.
Such is the random nature of a tornado, just metres away Maren Preston's home is relatively unscathed.
"I had a smashed window and also the garage roof is coming off."
Maren Preston's Wereroa Road home was largely unscathed, but her neighbours weren't so lucky, as the damage to the house in the background shows. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Next door, the house Rhianna Sweetman and her partner Neihana bought in December - their first home - is red stickered.
The pair are staying with her parents in Paraparaumu, where she works as an early childhood education teacher, while they wait for insurance assessments.
"We haven't had the chance to have more technicians and engineers come through the house and actually look at the roof, look at the truss inside of it, and also check things like our walls," she said.
"We know that the roof needs to come off, but we don't know if there's anything else that actually might be affected by the roof being damaged."
Many houses are still showing the effects of the tornado a fortnight ago. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
As the tornado continued its path across Levin, it inflicted damage at the corner of Winchester Street and Goldsmith Crescent.
There, the Kāianga Ora home Hayden Hauraki, partner Jordan Lund and their son Jonah lived in is uninhabitable.
"The roof out the front has been ripped right off and water is just coming straight inside. All the light fittings, all the electricals are just full of water, so we're not allowed to live in here," Hauraki said.
"We haven't got anywhere else to go right at the moment. We're just on the phone right now and they are trying to sort us somewhere.
"My partner, she's two weeks until being due. We're having another baby."
Jordan Lund and Hayden Hauraki are looking for a new home after their Kāinga Ora house in Levin was left uninhabitable. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Hauraki said the shortage of state houses was hampering their search, and they'd even been offered a place in Whanganui, which wouldn't work for the family.
Next door, Nick Thorne and his wife Liz are back in their house after 10 days away due to damage to their roof.
It's been repaired, but the couple face more cleaning up to replace a fence that was blown away and a shed that was flattened, while restoring the garden to its former glory.
Nick Thorne stands in front of his former garden shed and vanished front fence. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Like many, Nick Thorne remembered how loud the tornado was.
"There was just this terrific banging noise. It was as though the thunder was right outside my window.
"I just started thinking maybe we've been transported to Mariupol."
As the tornado formed, huge hailstones also rained down just south of Levin on commercial grower, Woodhaven Gardens.
Director Jay Clarke said the hail wiped out about 40 hectares of vegetables.
"We've still got another 200 acres [80ha] of product that's been affected and we won't know the outcome of that until we see how that grows through the winter.
"For example I've got a meeting to discuss some broccoli that looks like it's got some issues where the hail has just caused a little bit of damage to the head and now, with the rain and the cold, a little bit of headrot is setting in."
Clarke said if other growers had premium veggies on the market, it could be hard to sell damaged product.
About 10 percent of the garden's crops, worth $2 million to $3m, was affected.
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"We've had some cabbage and silverbeet and celery that were completely wiped out...
"Then we've got broccoli, iceberg lettuce and spinach, and some radish, that we're trying to grow our way out of."
The Horowhenua District Council said 20 buildings were red stickered, including 17 homes.
A mayoral relief fund is worth about $265,000, and 28 applications have been made for help from this so far. Another round of applications opens on Friday.
Levin residents who need somewhere to live can contact the Temporary Accommodation Service, run by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, by calling 0508 754 163 or visiting the TAS website.
