As I’m typing, the whole south west of France is experiencing a very strong winter storm with winds in the 100-110 miles/hour range. Some tiles have just flown out the roof of my shop but reports are the Bordeaux area is much more affected. I hope Jeffrey, Lob and others up there are OK. We have had power cut off early this morning and it might get cut again… Right now, half a million people are without power… More later…
Oh, and 20_25 feet waves forecasted, too, but I doubt anyone will ride them…
The words from the Endless Summer that end your emails have a different connotation today. From your description of the winds associated with the storm the human toll and damage could have been a lot worse. We had a series of small intense storms about a month back - the power loss can be a real problem depending on how efficently it is restored.
Bob, thank you for your concern. Everything is OK here except a few tiles less on my shop’s roof, but that will easily be fixed as soon as winds decrease. I just hope that others up north are OK too. Since I have no news, I suspect they must be out of power, which is no fun especially in winter. Fortunately, temperatures are not very low but bringing back power everywhere means cutting all those trees into pieces so that emergency vehicles can reach all villages, and that will take time… I’m the lucky one.
“In Spain’s northern Basque country, waves as high as 21.5 metres (71 feet) were recorded off Cape Matxitxako, according to a spokesman for the regional interior ministry.”
I feel very sad about all those kids getting killed in Spain. I wish all you spanish swaylockers a lot of courage and my thoughts and prayers go to all of them and their families.
This morning’s news are that it will take time to bring things back to normal in the Landes and Gironde. I guess that PierreB, Jeffrey and others must still be without power, still no news from them.
The storm went on towards the south-east where winds of about 120-130 Mph were observed in some places. Nicolas Sarkozy is coming to Bordeaux this morning to watch the mess and hopefully give the area the means to recover fast.
Just got our phone and internet back. We had some tiles off the roof as well. Lost a rain gutter and some problems like that, but nothing serious. Several trees are down from the woods just behind the house, all of them somehow falling in between the houses. Over a few blocks there are homes that were not so lucky: some massive pines on people’s roofs.