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Source: ONE News -
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A tight knit community is mourning, after a freak accident claimed the life of a 15-year-old during Saturday night's fierce weather in the Far North.
Strong winds caused a tree to fall on a caravan, crushing 15-year-old Danielle Finlayson to death, just before 1am at Whakapara, near Whangarei.
Danielle was asleep in the caravan at the time.
The Rural Fire Service had to cut the tree away to get access to the caravan where they found Danielle with fatal injuries.
They say she was probably in a position where she couldn't breath, after being pined down by the tree while she was asleep.
It took about an hour to free her.
Some of the fire crew volunteers knew the teenager, her family and her hockey playing sisters.
She was the only person in the caravan when it was struck by the tree.
Her family were in their house nearby on the property at Whakapara, 23 kilometres northwest of Whangarei and were not injured.
Police communications shift manager Scott Osmond says it was one of about 30 storm-related incidents during the night.
High winds felled close to forty trees around Whangarei overnight.
The MetService has issued a severe weather watch and has forecast heavy rain and severe gales from Northland to Waikato and across to Bay of Plenty.
The severe weather was expected to ease later on Sunday, the MetService says.
