It was Easter Sunday on April 16, 1995, when winds estimated at over 180km/h cut a 100-metre-wide swathe of damage for 10 kilometres through Merimbula and affected nearby Pambula.

Although no lives were lost, which many people called a miracle given the devastation, 34 people were injured by flying debris.

About 15 homes were completely destroyed, the roofs torn off 10 motels and more than 200 other buildings damaged.

Trees were uprooted, power lines were down and, according to The Canberra Times on April 18, 1995, insurance companies estimated there was $40 million in damage.

The roofs of many homes copped the brunt of the storm, according to Queanbeyan State Emergency Service volunteer Julius Rucska.

After 10 years as a volunteer with the SES, Mr Rucska said the Merimbula tornado was the first time he had been called to help a whole street, not just one house.

"When you were on a roof, you could see orange SES crews all over town," he said.

"That sort of scale of roof damage I hadn't seen like that before, it had ripped off whole roofs, not just left holes in tiles.

"A block of flats we went to, the lady said she was watching television and could hear a noise.

"She felt a bit of a breeze and then her roof was gone."

Mr Rucska recalled was visiting the home of an elderly couple and asking where the damage was.

"They showed us a roof in their backyard. The lady said, 'It's not ours, it's from across the road'.

"The roof had lifted off, went across the road and over their house, and landed in their backyard. We had to dismantle it to get it out."

Twenty years on and still a volunteer, Mr Rucska said he had not witnessed that scale of damage from wind and rain again.

The tornado was one event that helped reform building codes in the region, with structural requirements increased and legislation tightened.

Bega Valley Shire Council manager of building services Jeff Tipping inspected the damage to homes on the morning after the freak storm.

"The devastation of what occurred, it wasn't something that had happened in my time, or since," he said.

"The amount of debris that was around the place, there was a whole range of debris.

"People's personal belongings were strewn around in Berrambool and the area."

Mr Tipping said there was a lot of roof damage and general storm damage to buildings from flying debris, but there was also structural movement from the high winds.

"That was probably a reason why a lot of the homes had to be demolished, they were impacted by the strong winds," he said.

"I think for the council they were obviously pleased that nobody had lost their lives ... it was quite traumatic."

Mr Tipping said a legacy of the tornado and other smaller storms that lashed the coast was a change to building codes to have structural tie downs and the bracing of buildings improved. There was now a greater requirement to fasten the roof structure back to the foundation, using metal ties to bind the building back to the footings,

"They wouldn't have changed it just because of that incident, but that would have been a consideration," Mr Tipping said.

The Bureau of Meteorology conducted a post-event damage survey and classified the tornado as F2 on the Fujita scale suggesting maximum wind speeds of 180-240 km/h.

While at the time newspaper headlines screamed "Merimbula mayhem" and "the Easter blow", 20 years on, the sleepy seaside village comes alive at Easter and during school holidays.

Tourists flock to the area from Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, many with no recollection of the destruction caused by the tornado.