Wild weather of Germany

[olmue]

Wrote just over a thousand words today. I don't know how much I have on the book total, since I'm not writing in order, but in my head I'm feeling well-grounded. It's coming! If I got home at five and had no other obligations all day, maybe I even could write this in a month, despite what I said the other day. It's not going to happen--those 1000 words come at the expense of oh, the dishes and the floor and ironing (like I've ever ironed in America--but with no clothes dryer, and with things that don't dry without a bit of applied heat, I've actually had to use the thing a few times here. But that's a post for another day!)

The post for today is the weather. The entire nation of Germany is currently under a dire high wind warning (Orkanboeen--hurricane-force gales). I have to say, I've never looked at a weather map and seen the whole country red/orange before! But look at this and you will see. We are supposed to have gusts up to 120 km/hour tonight. The wind is whistling through the house, despite the tight German windows, and the large cottonwoods behind the house are waving. My husband and I should probably take it more seriously, but so far, we're amused at the way the entire country has shut down. The principal at school told the kids not to play outside today (I'm actually touched at that, not amused), the university class my husband was supposed to teach (and be observed in) was called off, and there was some thought to shutting down the public buses, which is huge, given that a large proportion of the population travels with them. I hope the house is still standing, as are all the trees, when we wake up in the morning, but after living in tornado alley Illinois (and Arkansas and Texas) as well as coastal South Carolina, where we saw one hurricane after the other, I guess I'm not too worked up.

WOO-HOO! News flash! 9:36 pm phone call from the school. Die Schule faellt morgen aus in ganz Bayern--school is cancelled tomorrow in the whole state of Bayern. Flip that alarm off, and let's get some SLEEP, I say!!

EDITED TO ADD: Okay, so I've been looking at the news, and this really is hurricane-strength wind. Winds over 100 mph in England? 14 people dead in Europe (mostly in weather traffic accidents/trees falling on them)? Nearly all the trains are shut down, the power is currently flickering, the winds have picked up again. They're calling it Hurricane Cyril. Holland has gotten hit quite hard, and Austria and Hungary are getting ready for the blast.

Good thing we have a basement. Even if the windows are all broken down there, we can close the doors and stand in the halls, I guess.

Hmm, after reading this, maybe I won't be sleeping so easy, after all. What I can't find is a straightforward web site that will tell me just how long this is supposed to last.

Comments

[robinellen.livejournal.com]

We get some pretty serious winds here (in the foothills) -- I don't ever remember the speeds (just the damage -- like the gale that uprooted our twenty foot blue spruce, for example) -- but our whole bedroom shakes when the wind's bad, and it's hard to sleep ;) Ihope you do much better!

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The houses are pretty strong around here, luckily, but when I opened up CNN's web page this morning, the first picture was of trees lying on cars in Nurnberg (we live not far away). I don't think it's too bad in this area, though. The places with the highest winds were up in the mountains. (Gusts up to category 2 hurricane speeds, actually!)

[robinellen.livejournal.com]

Wow! Glad you're okay :)

[lorrainemt.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I just read about this on internet. Stay safe,olmue.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I think we're good. The trains have started running in some places, which is probably nice for the estimated 10,000 stranded travelers and the train officials trying to keep the peace.

Once it gets really light we'll take a walk and see what everything looks like.

[(Anonymous)]

I saw your site on Verla Kay's board and had to check it out since I'm in Germany too. We had winds here in Heidelberg too, but not the major stuff with trees falling over.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, that last comment was me, didn't leave my identity! -- Laurie
http://africakidandtheworld.blogspot.com/

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Hi Laurie, I saw your posts over at Verla's! I didn't know you were in Heidelberg--very pretty town!! I'm close to Nurnberg, like I said, and aside from a few extra pine cones on the ground and a little flooding around the river, it wasn't too bad. But the news had a lot of drastic-looking pictures.

I was all ready to friend you, and then I saw that you're a blogspot person. Oh, well, I can still read your blog!