Scramble to fix roofs after huge storm

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn surveys Sue Twist's Cobden  home, among the ruins of her roof...
Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn surveys Sue Twist's Cobden home, among the ruins of her roof and snapped trees on Tuesday. Photo by the Greymouth Star.
Builders and building materials are in short supply on the West Coast, the result of a mad scramble to patch up roofs left gaping after an unprecedented storm cut a trail of damage over 400km from Karamea to Fox Glacier.

The MetService said the strongest gust recorded during last Thursday's storm on its network was 130kmh, at Westport, although a Buller farmer said he recorded 300kmh.

The winds threw a camper van over a fence at Whataroa, scattered thousands of plastic discs from the new Greymouth sewerage scheme over several kilometres, and reportedly pushed over gravestones in the Westport Cemetery.

Grey Mayor Tony Kokshoorn estimated 60 Greymouth homes had lost their roofs and at least nine were probably ''write-offs''.

Westport and Whataroa were also badly hit.

He put the cost of the storm at between $10 million and $13 million.

Mr Kokshoorn hoped to get insurance companies mobilised.

Grey District Council civil defence controller Stephen May said staff would be making a register of damaged houses, as well as repairing council assets.

A busy Clark Ellery said the Ellery's sheet iron store had operated all last weekend, helping ensure people had metal to patch up their roofs. The company had already turned out 10 new roofs.

Evan Grooby, owner of a private hangar that was destroyed at the Greymouth aerodrome, said one plane was completely smashed, and three substantially damaged.

Mr Grooby was on site about 7pm last Thursday, when the building started to blow apart.

''It's a bit of a kick in the guts, but we lost a shed full of toys. A lot of people lost their homes.''

The Greymouth Volunteer Fire Brigade had between 85 and 100 call-outs, and Westport 145, in the first 48 hours of the storm.

Westport Fire Chief Pat O'Dea said that in his 52-plus years with the fire brigade he had never seen anything like it in terms of scale or how long it lasted. Meanwhile, evacuating Westport's Club Buller before gales ripped off the roof last Thursday may have prevented serious injuries.

Researcher and social commentator Celia Lashlie was speaking to about 130 teachers, when the roof began banging, manager Kerry Duncan said.

''We made the decision to ... get everyone out.''

Within minutes of the evacuation, when only he and a staff member remained, the roof was ripped off and ceiling tiles fell where the teachers had been meeting.

The severity of the storm dawned on a West Coast pie delivery man only as the ferocious winds lifted his truck on to two wheels.

Rainbow Cake Kitchen manager Mathew McManus left Westport about 5am on Thursday but had to abandon his truck with the motor still running after hurricane-force winds threatened to fling it over a bluff on Sate Highway 6.

Mr McManus (33) was delivering pies, sausage rolls and cakes to Reefton, the Grey Valley, Blackball, Greymouth and Hokitika.

On 10-mile Bluff on the coast road, the gale lifted the truck on to two wheels and further along the road, after the truck had reared up alarmingly on two wheels twice more, he decided to abandon it and hitch a lift.

When the truck was recovered on Friday the recovery crew found it had been blown about 15 metres, spun 180 degrees and its windscreen and front light were smashed and the driver's door was dented.

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