The quick thinking of two boys stopped them from being crushed by a tree in Mount Maunganui.

Strong westerlies ripped through the Bay of Plenty yesterday as severe gales whipped the country.

Stephanie Radich took to Facebook to describe the close call her son and his friend had yesterday.

'Cohen and his mate Ashton ran around the Mount this morning and were chilling under this tree (pictured above) waiting for their slower Mums to get back.

'A mini tornado ripped past, and luckily they heard a loud creak and scarpered just as the tree split and fell in three places!”

There were also reports of a power outage near Katikati after a power pole was reported to have snapped near Tetley Road.

SunLive is working on getting more information about the outage and will post an update as soon as we have something.