20 September 2010
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Snow-laden Southland schools and businesses were last night considering closure after copping the worst of a three-day storm that lashed the country.
Emergency management teams were last night assessing buildings in Invercargill after exceptionally heavy snowfall in the southern city.
The roof of Wren's paint shop in Yarrow St caved in under the heavy snow yesterday and the building remained cordoned last night.
The roof of the Windsor New World supermarket had partially collapsed, and Farmers department store and The Warehouse both had sagging roofs, Civil Defence spokeswoman Adrienne Henderson said.
The damage to those buildings followed the Saturday morning collapse of Stadium Southland, which sent dozens of tennis players running for their lives.
Jason Smith was standing outside the courts in the stadium when the doors in front of him blasted open.
"It was like a big explosion and I remember seeing what looked like a panel off the roof fly past me a couple of metres away," he said. "I thought it was a bit of an earthquake in the beginning and then realised nothing else was moving and just ran."
Keiran Fahy had just showered in the stadium when it collapsed.
"I heard this hell of a bloody bang. "I walked out [of the changing room] and looked to where the courts were and there was just light.
"It would have been a bloody disaster if everybody was in there."
Tennis coach Andre Van Rooyen said the experience had left him and others shaken and feeling lucky to be alive.
Players had been sent away immediately after training to avoid getting trapped at the stadium in the deteriorating weather, he said.
"It was just lucky. I really think it could easily have been a few deaths.
"It was just carnage; it looked like a tornado coming as the roof collapsed," Van Rooyen said. Stadium staff member Brad Sycamore was in reception when he heard a bang.
"People were running at us and yelling and all the alarms were going off.
"It was shaking like crazy."
Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt said the design for Stadium Southland had been controversial from the start.
He said he can recall people saying on numerous occasions that the stadium's roof could collapse in a major snowstorm, Radio New Zealand reported.
Mr Shadbolt has announced a full investigation into the collapse of the $10 million building. Most of the building will have to be torn down and rebuilt.
However, the chair of the charitable trust that owns the stadium, Acton Smith, said the mayor's comments were unfounded.
There were never any shortcuts in the stadium and insurers have never had any problems with it, Mr Smith said.
With more snow expected today, the Invercargill City Council was last night considering asking schools and businesses to remain closed.
A Southland weather expert says the weekend's snowfall could be the heaviest in Invercargill for 50 years.
45South Weather Services managing director Andy Fraser said there was no accurate way to measure the fall, but it was unusual to have snow of this magnitude.
Last week, he told people that the weekend's weather could be a shock but he never thought it would be this bad.
The snowfall was 10 to 12cm deep and up to 14cm in some areas.
In the North Island more than 55,000 homes had their power supply cut over the weekend. Last night, about 600 households in Wairarapa, Whanganui, Rangitikei, the Bay of Plenty, South Waikato and Taranaki were still without electricity.
Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said more than 100 staff had worked throughout the weekend to replace broken poles, clear trees from lines and replace other damaged components.
Federated Farmers Manawatu dairy chairman Robert Ervine said the storm had contributed to the wettest two weeks in the past decade.
The storm closed several major roads. Highways in the Manawatu, Waikato and Taranaki regions were particularly affected by slips and flooding, with some closed or with speed restrictions as crews cleaned up, the New Zealand Transport Agency said.
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