A very windy day

On Thursday a huge storm blew across England and Northern Europe. It was extremely windy - that is one way to describe it. We were sort of ignorant as to the caliber of this storm, but by noon it was apparent that the country really getting slammed. Part of the roof blew off of Schipol airport. Central Station in Amsterdam was shut down as parts of the roof caved in and glass fell. I was blown off my bike riding to pick up my residence permit. After I picked Elena up, we had to bike a different way home - to avoid the trees down in the park. Then we were redirected again as workmen tried to secure part of a metal roof ripping of a building. We arrived home to learn that a crane had blown over on campus - just two buildings down from where Jake and I work. School children were being sent home. Jake waited for a break in the storm (thanks to the handy radar) and go home safe, but was glad to have his helmet.

Guess it was a pretty big storm, as it actually made the new in the US and we woke this morning to multiple emails of concern after hearing about a crane falling at the university.

The public transportation was shut down and people were stranded all over the country as train and buses were unable to run because of the high winds (blowing buses and tractor trailers off of the road) and trees and power lines down. It was so windy at our house during the peak of the storm, that the vent windows in our kitchen were blown open multiple times. The next morning we saw chain saw crews cutting down trees that had blown into the Mallie Single (canal at the end of our road).

Winds gusts reached almost 140 km/hr (almost 90 miles an hour).

Good thing we were in our sturdy brick house - we'd have been blown out clear out of the apartment on Koshland!