The storm that devastated Ward and the east coast of Marlborough was worse than the Wahine storm of 1968, Grassmere farmer Doug Avery reckons.

The winds had reached more than 225kmh in Ward, and it was lucky no-one had been killed, he said.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life, and I've been on my place for 43 years."

Doug Avery A huge tree fell across the boundary fence at Bonavery Farm blocking the neighbour/s farm gate

Mr Avery's father had described the Wahine storm of April 10, 1968, to him, and he believed Thursday's storm was much worse.

The wind had knocked over about 200 trees and two implement sheds at his home.

The intensity of the wind on Thursday night was frightening, he said.

Doug Avery About 200 trees have blown over at Bonavery Farm

"It sounded like a continuous freight train going past. It looked like a bomb site.

"During the night, it was like living at the back of a gun range. My wife and I were quite scared during it."

While some of the trees that came down were 300 metres from his house, it was covered with needles, small branches and other debris.

Trees had crashed down either side of his dog kennels.

His daughter's home had a hole punched into the roof by two pinecones on a branch blown from a tree about 80 metres away.

"They took the mess off the roof to see where the water was coming in and there was this hole shaped exactly like the pine cones."

Mr Avery had seen no sign that animals were killed and was grateful no-one had been harmed.

"I thank our lucky stars that we came through without a huge amount of infrastructural damage. If it had kept on raining, there would have been a massive loss."

His house was surrounded by water earlier in the night, and it would have flooded if it hadn't stopped raining about 8pm, he said.