The clean-up continues this morning after the violent tornado which ripped through the west Auckland suburb of Hobsonville yesterday afternoon.

Three people died in the storm, which also damaged about 150 houses and forced 250 residents to evacuate to the nearby Whenuapai air force base.

Civil Defence is estimating the damage is going to cost around $11 million to repair.

While a breakdown of costs isn’t available, Auckland Council will be updating this throughout the day, said senior media adviser Angela Jones.

“It’s just a Civil Defence estimate at this time,” she said.

Civil Defence spokesman Clive Manley told Radio New Zealand this morning that building assessors would be looking at the site today to see whether residents could return to their homes.

“There’s either roof damage where trees have gone through so they are secure but they will not be able to enter into them until building inspectors have deemed them safe.”

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