Tim Mackay said luckily his glasshouse was held down by grapevines Photo: Tim Mackay / Supplied
An Invercargill local has described Thursday's weather as violent, with gusts strong enough to rip his glasshouse from the ground.
A state of emergency remains in place for Southland and Clutha, after the weather knocked out power, water and communications.
Tim Mackay was out for lunch, when the weather started to turn, and said the rain and wind were relentless.
"We are used to a bit of weather down south, but this was violent. Just huge volumes of water and wind coming down the streets, and everybody was just sort of staring out windows, going, 'That's not normal', and then it persisted."
Mackay said his street was already damaged by the time he got home.
"We drove home and went, 'I wonder what's happened to the house', because the police had been, bits of [the] road were shut already. with roofs coming off and trees coming down.
"I thought, 'Oh, I wonder if any damage at our place'.
Photo: Tim Mackay / Supplied
"I just had a pop round the corner and went, OK, we've got a problem'.
"It was so windy, it wasn't safe to go near the glasshouse at all, because it was just all shifting around with every bit of wind, so we had to wait for everything to calm down."
Mackay said the glasshouse was held down by grapevines, so it did not smash into neighbouring properties.
He said there were fences all over the place, roofs were ripped off people's garages and trees were all over the place.
Mackay also had a home in Te Anau that he went to check on, which was all OK.
He said he went for a walk around the township early on Saturday morning and said the levels of Lake Te Anau had not been that high since 2019.
"We've got a little pond by our place here and somebody was able to get a jet boat from the main lake into this wee pond."
Mackay said most places in Te Anau were back open on Saturday.
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