<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>0:16 radio new zealand news read by dinah vincent new plymouth residents are beginning to assess the damage caused by the tornado that ripped through the city in the early hours of this morning many houses have been damaged some very badly roofs are off fences are down cars blown about outbuildings scattered to the wind but by what locals say is a miracle all the damage appears to be to property no injuries are reported and at the top of the south island there's been major damage mainly in rural areas from hurricane winds but again miraculously no reported injuries in the taranaki tornado a two kilometre path of damage was cut from the sea through the suburbs of moturoa and westown to <&>1:00 the taranaki base hospital the radio new zealand news reporter on the scene brian lawler says now that it's daylight people are starting to discover the damage people are just coming to terms with damage at the moment unfortune it's a miserable morning it's still blowing strongly and raining heavily and emergency services are out trying to help people rebuild their shattered homes basically people are are evacuating young children into cars getting them out of the area as they set about basically putting their lives back together brian lawler police have no accurate number of voc no accurate numbers on damage to the area but it appears dozens of homes have suffered major structural damage <,> at the taranaki base hospital there were also INCREDIBLE escapes from injuries as the rooves were lifted off overnight units for relatives of patients and windows were blown out of the maternity ward we've had the hospital flats have had their roofs um blown off and maternity's had about fifteen or sixteen windows blown in um and <&>2:00 there was actually a woman in labour who who was actually giving birth and had her window blown in and the nurse speaking there says some of the roof was blown off the ward she's in and the ceiling has caved in under the pressure of the water one householder tony walsh says there was no warning strong winds all night and er there was a warning a a a pane of glass smashed which i think woke us and then that was it loud bang and got out of bed and went upstairs and the roof had gone tony walsh says some of their possessions have blown as far as four hundred metres away and at the top of the south island locals are also scratching their heads in pleased surprise that no injuries have been caused by what's described as a mini hurricane that swept through the motueka area near nelson this morning ripping up trees and knocking out phones and power tut reports of damage are still coming IN from the tasman motueka area the wind uprooted huge trees damaging power and telephone lines and closing the coastal road <&>3:00 between nelson and motueka until a short time ago a tasman power spokesman says a massive storm hit the region early this morning causing a huge power blackout and although some areas have it restored most people in tasman won't have power until later today dozens of other houses around the district are also without electricity although most people appear to have their phones working residents have told radio new zealand news of houses made unoccupiable packing sheds damage and severe damage to orchards and other crops in the area one resident says several houses have lost windows and suffered other damage a car has been stood up on its end the local church has lost half its roof and packing sheds have been damaged he says the saddest thing is damage done to trees in local orchards throughout the area but through all this still no reports of injury <,> the search has been called off for a new zealander john lyons and three british divers tapped trapped in a diving chamber in the south china sea after the sinking of an oil barge the experts say the four cannot have survived the <&>4:00 running out of their air supply a royal navy operations officer lieutenant commander steve bridges said he has had to give up hope of recovering the men <&>4:07 <&>ineligible male speaker <&>4:29 the royal navy's steve bridges <,> the mother of one of the new zealanders who survived the barge sinking says his family and rugby were on his mind as he floated and waited for rescue timothy clark's mother adele of auckland says her son was plucked from the water and flown to hong kong she says timothy never thought he was going to die but was angry that if he did he'd miss next weekend's rugby clash between the all blacks and the wallabies <,> tut the government has been making a bid to convince new zealanders that the economic situation demands <&>5:00 the sort of measures taken in the budget with a series of speeches around the country prime minister jim bolger has been in wanganui saying new zealand can't forever spend what it doesn't have and it's time for everyone to face facts and in an apparent reference to two backbench resignations mister bolger told his audience there are those who can't face the facts and prefer to walk away from the problems in wanaka health minister simon upton has declared that the recent budget challenges the national party and middle new zealand to prove that it has what it takes to bring the country back from the brink of economic collapse he too said it's time to bring the bad news home to middle new zealand that we have to stop spending and start saving <&>5:40