A tornado struck the centre of the village of Ha'alalo in central Tongatapu on Saturday, August 21, lifting the roof of the village hall, destroying a home with a mother and two children inside, hitting a primary school, knocking out the local kava club house, and damaging trees.

Amazingly, no one was injured.

Tonga's chief meteorological officer, 'Ofa Fa'anunu said that the tornado, estimated to have been spinning at between 50 to 70 knots passed through villages situated on the southern coastline of the island of Tongatapu.

It moved eastward from the village of Houma to Ha'akame, Ha'alalo, 'Utulau then out to sea.

'Ofa said that his department did not have the equipment to precisely measure the strength of the Tornado, but after assessing the damage he estimated its strength at between 50 to 70 knots and it took about two minutes to hit the villages and disappear out to sea.

The hardest hit was Ha'alalo, where the roof of the village hall was dumped on the lawn of the village primary school, and a kava club house next door was blown over.

Paula Havea, the Class 6 teacher at Ha'alalo Primary School said that it was fortunate that they were on their mid-year break but they returned to school today for extra classes and decided to clean up the school instead.

Paula from Nukunuku, said that from experience tornadoes sometimes come ashore at Nukunuku then travel southward along the coastline before moving eastward and usually go out to sea at the village of 'Utulau. He said that this time the tornado nearly touched land at Ha'akame but, he joked, that because the villagers were beating tins and walls of their houses the tornado jumped up again before it came down on Ha'alalo.

Another eye witness, Susitina Kalolo (74) said she was at her Fale Koloa, shop when she heard the noise, she thought it was an aircraft flying very low over the village, then suddenly she saw the corrugated irons roof of the village hall, lift off and crash onto the school lawn. She also saw big branches from trees flying by. Susitina said she was reading her rosary as she watched in fear while the tornado roared by.

'Elenoa 'Alatini, and her two children, Veuke (4) and Sandra (3) said that they just hid themselves inside their little fale even though the roof and a wall were blown off.

See Photos. [2]