Tornado and storms cause havoc: Namoi SES - Weatherzone

A woman in her 70s was lucky to escape with her life as a mini-tornado ripped her house to shreds at Tenterden on Saturday.

The SES says the elderly woman put a pillow over her head and sheltered in her lounge room as the roof lifted off and her home disintegrated around her.

The tornado touched down around 4:00pm at Tenterden, Ben Lomond and Guyra.

Elsewhere, strong winds and heavy storms battered parts of the region, with falls of up to 60mm recorded in half an hour at Barraba township.

Region Controller with the Namoi S-E-S, Andrew Galvin, says his volunteers responded to around three dozen calls for assistance.

"There was a number of localities hit by severe thunderstorms, around the Bundarra area and also around Barraba, particularly," he said.

"We had some 33 call-outs with more than half of those were in Barraba and primarily related to damage to homes in terms of very heavy rainfall, blocked gutters, localised flooding and also wind."

Andrew Galvin says, while the tornado pushed through on a very narrow front, it did significant damage.

"Near the Tenterden area is where it touched down, and also Ben Lomond, and it effectively destroyed one home and several sheds on another property," he said.

"It didn't touch down again until quite a number of kilometres away where it caused extensive damage in timbered areas and brought down trees across roads."

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Tenterden tornado captured during severe thunderstorm activity on the Northern Tablelands. Saturday, November 23, 2013.  ABC.