Tornado tears through New Zealand’s largest city

May 3, 2011 – AUCKLAND, NZ – A tornado tore through New Zealand’s largest city Auckland today, killing one person and injuring 14 others. Cars and trees were sent flying through the air and roofs were ripped off buildings when the tornado struck the northern suburb of Albany, with damage centered on a shopping mall, before it moved south, leaving a 5km trail of destruction. Civil defense officials put the death toll at one, from an earlier report of two, with 14 injured. “It’s been a very powerful and quite devastating tornado that’s caused a significant amount of damage in a very localized area,” New Zealand prime minister John Key told media, adding the government had told authorities it would do all it could to help. Tornadoes swept across the southern U.S. states last week, killing more than 350 people and causing as much as $5 billion of damage. New Zealand experiences about 20 tornadoes a year, but most are relatively small and fatalities rare. The worst tornado in New Zealand struck the city of Hamilton in 1948, killing three people, injuring 80 and destroying nearly 200 buildings. In 2004, a tornado struck a small town in the coastal Taranaki region on the North Island, killing two people. –Irish Times