Tornado strikes homes as storm lashes town  By Ben Irwin  A
damaged building on a plant farm near Amberley, north
Canterbury. Photo / Martin Hunter  Rough weather, lightning, and
reports of a tornado caused extensive damage in North Canterbury
last night.   Fire service shift manager Andrew Norris said a
"cluster of houses" in Amberley, 50km north of Christchurch, had
been badly damaged about 6.30pm.  Southern fire communications
shift manager Karl Patterson said the strong winds lifted tiles
off roofs near the Burnham Military Camp area and three houses
in Amberley, 50km north of Christchurch, were also affected.
"One house completely lost its roof. Another house had extensive
roof damage [and] windows blown in."  The weather also caused
power pole fires and trees to be knocked down," Mr Patterson
said.  "Apparently a tornado of some description sort of went
through just near the coast - it caused a little bit of damage,
but we did a check of all the houses in the area and they were
ok.  "We had a couple of