All of western Europe was battered by a storm in the last 24-36 hours. The French Atlantic coast was particularly badly effected with floods as well as falling trees. The storm continued in a north-easterly direction and came past us here in Germany as well. There was structural damage and sadly also deaths, mostly from falling trees.
At the back of our garden there is a copse of different kinds of trees, and most of them are quite tall and thin. When the storm was at its strongest yesterday the trees behind us behaved like wheat straws rather than wooden trunks. I heard today that there were gusts of up to 160 km/hour. I can believe that, because I have never seen the trees around us move like that.
The branch where I hang my bird feeders was being bashed against the shrub next to it at a 90 degree angle! It broke, and is now hanging at a very sad angle pointing at the ground. Our neighbour's trampoline was picked up, tossed over the fence and landed upside down in another neighbour's garden. On the other side of the copse a big tree is now resting on top of somebody's garden shed.
When I went for a short walk I discovered that the tree which I have written about before (with a mysterious bike wheel rim around the trunk), had now been brought down by the strong winds. It still had the rim around its lower part.
I am eternally grateful that the very big, rotten and unsafe tree, that stood outside our front door before, was taken down completely in December. That was the best Christmas present; I dare not think what our roof otherwise would have looked like now.
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11 comments:
Glad you were OK and that tree was down already. Sad about all the trees out back.
I live in California, but spend half of every year on an island in Maine. From your description of the sever weather it was what hit our island last week. Heavy winds, slashing northeasterly winds, and trees snapped like twigs. Power was out for days.
Glad you made it through!
Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island
Wow... looks like some damage was done. Glad that you are ok!
:) The Bach
Oreneta - The German authorities are generally very good at forestry and look after their trees, but they do let them grow very tall and spindly. Maybe they are easier to handle when you harvest them, but it also makes them easy victims of stormy weather sometimes.
Sharon - Thanks for stopping by. Sounds like you know exactly what I was talking about! At least we had no problems with the electricity supply.
Bachelor - Around 90 trees came down here (NATO camp, like a village, with around 2000 people) according to the poor guys who have to clear it all up.
Oh, what a terrible devastation. I am glad you are safe. The weather is very odd in the whole world these days.
xo
Zuzana
Protege - It looks awful in some places; much nicer to look at the snowdrops at the front!
I remember the bike wheel post... sort of sad that it fell down, but glad it did no damage. Considering I drove through that storm (now in the clear light of day I am thinking it wasn't such a great idea), I saw for myself how many trees came down - even along the A3.
Lynda - That must have been scary, seeing them coming down as you drive. You would be forgiven for not driving in a straight line under those conditions! I'm glad you managed OK! :-)
travelling ... so have been a bit away from regular news, but did see some of the storm results. glad you are well. Cyclones are part of our life, but not usually for europe.
Veronica - I have been a bit of an absentee myself, but I am back in gear now.
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