WELLINGTON - A major clean-up began in tornado-hit Auckland on Wednesday, as authorities in New Zealand's largest city expressed amazement that the destructive twister resulted in only one death.

Winds exceeding 200 kilometers an hour tore through the suburb of Albany when the tornado hit without warning on Tuesday afternoon, flipping cars, uprooting trees and shearing the roofs.

Construction worker Benedict Dacayan, originally from the Philippines, was killed when the swirling winds picked him up and threw him into a concrete wall, police said.