Megacentre Shopping Mal Disaster NZ

A tornado has hit the Megacentre shopping mal in New Zealand and ripped the roof off causing huge damage.
Being reported now on Sky NZ News.

One dead 22 injured. An unusual place for a tornado although I see from the inernet that NZ had a death in 2004 and a few in 1954 from tornados. About as unusual as an earthquake in Australia? (apparently they get a big one in unpopulaed areas every 5-6 years)

Already a thread here. Hoping there are no more then the two confirmed fatalities

Thanks for the information. That's why I like the Internet because I find out stories about far away places I would have never heard on the MSM locally here in the United States. The media here is 75-80% Bin Laden is dead right now, giving it uber-attention.

When I browse news I always filter by "world news" specifically, so it's nice to have a outlet where you guys will keep me up to date on this stuff.

I had read as a child years ago that Australia and New Zealand were prone to tornadoes, and as the poster above points out, there is a case history of tornadoes in that geographic region.

I do believe that we as a species need to develop better disaster preparation planning and improve architectural standards significantly in order to mitigate potential disaster scenarios from coalescing.

I kind of view life today as the 'medieval dark ages'.
And the Internet is like a key that can unlock the door to the next Renaissance.