A Mangawhai resident was forced to leap into his walk-in wardrobe when a tornado ploughed through his house.

Nick Berthoud told the Herald they woke up to heavy rain and wind.

"We opened up our front curtain to watch the lightning strike and before you knew it, the rain had stopped and there was a really eerie feeling," he said.

He said that moment was when the tornado struck.

"It sounded like a turbine starting up and getting louder and louder and louder.

"Before you knew it, our outdoor furniture was smashing through our kitchen glass. Debris from other houses was flying about.

"It was hectic and scary."

Berthoud said they couldn't find a table under which to hide.

"I grabbed the wife and jumped into our walk-in wardrobe which has no windows luckily," he said.

"We pretty much just crouched in the corner, waiting for it to pass."

As soon as the storm had ended, Berthoud and his wife screamed down the hallway to see if their child was safe.

He initially couldn't see what was happening in his neighbour's house until he heard screaming from the top floor.

"When I heard the screams, I jumped over the fence and called 111."

Kaipara District Council reiterated that multiple hazards remain, and told people not to cut, move or touch power lines and "treat all lines as live".

The council said Molesworth Drive and a section of Moir St is now open to traffic, but only travel in the area if you need to. 

Moir St between Insley St and Kagan Ave/Mangawhai Domain remains closed with an active police cordon in place, as does Old Waipu Rd.

Northpower said tonight that power would be restored in the Mori St area at about midnight, but power is likely to be out until 5pm Monday in the Old Waipu Rd area, where much of the damage has occurred.

"If you have damage on the line from the network to your property this will take longer as our crews turn their attention to these service lines following restoration of the main lines."

Please do not cut any service lines away, this is only going to make the job longer. Remember – treat all lines and equipment as live at all times, Northpower said in a statement.

The power company also said fibre remains out in the wider Mangawahai area with only the village restored. 

"Teams are working on this and we estimate fibre restoration around 9pm. If fibre is not up and running at your place after 9 pm, please call your retailer."

A handful of Mangawhai residents are reportedly causing delays in restoring power to the tornado-damaged Northland town.

Northland MP Grant McCallum says the whole village was due to be back on by about midnight, but there've been a few snags.

McCallum says, in some cases people are cutting the power lines lying across driveways, so some lines won't be on till 5pm tomorrow.

Strong wind gusts wreaked havoc in Mangawhai at about 3 o'clock this morning, leading to thousands of power outages.