In the middle of the tornado chaos on Saturday one south Auckland woman went into labour.
An ambulance arrived to help, but before long the woman, her unborn baby and both ambulance officers were at the mercy of the storm.
Just before 9am the ferocious tornado ripped through south Auckland and took just minutes to bring chaos to quiet Franklyne Rd in Otara.
It was a frightening experience for resident Vaine Tapora.
"I just grabbed my little ones in the lounge and just sit down. I said 'stay there, don't move, hug each other'," she says.
It wasn't just her grandchildren she was worried about. Her daughter-in-law was in labour and about to be taken to the hospital when the tornado struck.
"[I said] 'why are they sitting outside there? Why have they not left yet?'" she says "But there was a reason."
The neighbours' garden shed had smacked into the side of the ambulance, smashing the back windows while the mum-to-be and two ambulance officers were inside.
"I saw the trees flying like crazy and I said 'oh no'. What comes in my head - my daughter-in-law in the ambulance."
Incredibly, no one was injured and a second ambulance quickly arrived to take the woman to Middlemore hospital.
Tapora's other concern was her 18-year-old dog Butcher.
"I was saying, 'has my dog died or got an injury or something?'"
Poor old Butcher had suddenly became Toto from The Wizard of Oz - lifted up into the air and over the fence.
"I don't know how, it was amazing," Tapora says. "I think maybe the wind carried my dog, to the other side."
Both Tapora and Butcher are still shaking after the ordeal. She's just thankful her family is okay, even if she has lost several fences, part of her roof and most of her trees.
It's going to be a big clean-up job for Franklyne Road. But by mid-morning the neighbours were all mucking in, marvelling at the strength of the storm.
