tornado

PHOTO: It comes six weeks after a tornado which struck the area. Source: 1 NEWS

Dianne Reece is about to move back onto her Papatoetoe property six weeks after a tornado devasted her home of 43 years.

She will be living in a cabin that is planned to be put in the front yard – her son, Evan Reece, has spent the last month and half living in a power-less sleep out since the disaster.

This is one of 51 properties badly damaged by the tornado, another 18 homes are uninhabitable.

“I was in my bedroom, sitting on my bed just about to get up – it sounded like great big golf ball hail stones, and I thought they were going to come through my roof,” Dianne told 1 NEWS.

The 68-year-old threw herself onto the floor as her bedroom window blew inwards, “flying through the room”.

“When it all stopped, I looked up and right in front of me there were two pieces of glass right in front of my face like this.”

1 NEWS
Dianne Reece’s home. Source: 1 NEWS

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