A Featherston family has had a lucky escape after their large picture window flexed, cracked and then caved in.
The Wairarapa town at the base of the Remutaka Hill is being pummelled by severe gale force winds and remains under a red level wind warning through until Thursday evening.
The resident - who didn't want to be named - told RNZ they were sitting right next to the window and just managed to dive out of the way when a huge gust blew it in.
"It was like a bomb going off.
"It's a very large window, it's about 4.5m across, and it went off like a rocket."
Firefighters at the scene of the smashed window. Photo: RNZ/Mark Papalii
She said she got cut on her torso by a shard of glass - some of which are 5mm thick - but no one else was injured.
She said they were shaken up.
A shard of glass. Photo: RNZ/Mark Papalii
"Feeling a little bit rattled, but the teenage daughter is the most freaked out we've just sent her around to the neighbour's place to decompress a bit."
A glazier is expected to board up the window on Thursday, and in the meantime the Featherston Fire Brigade has made the house waterproof.
Firefighter on a house that had its roof lifted. Photo: RNZ/Mark Papalii
The brigade has been responding to back-to-back calls as wind gusts ramped in intensity.
Chief Colin McKenna said the most serious call-out was to a quad-bike accident.
He said the wind flipped the bike onto a person who had since been taken to hospital.
The majority of the calls, however, had been to falling fences and roofs lifting.
He said in most cases they had taken the fences down - "you can't repair them in this weather".
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