Screaming Winds

Yes, it was bad. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/18/europe.storm.ap/index.html

The wind was howling… screaming past my second story office all day. I’ve read that clichéd metaphor a thousand times, but when you hear it actually doing exactly that, the truth of it grips you. I couldn’t even ride the bike from BTC to Zwevegem, as was threatening to hurl me into traffic, and I made zero progress anyway. The strong wind was about to pick the bike right up and toss it into the fields, and would have done so had I not gripped and leaned on it to walk it back to a rack. Even when walking I was literally nearly knocked off of my feet by a few of the intense gusts, and had to keep my head poked forward toward the wind so it wouldn’t rip my wool hood cover off of me like tissue. Walking into it was like walking on the bottom of a pool with weights on your feet. One older man here at BTC fell down on the stairs after a sudden pulse. Tree limbs were snapping throughout the day (they didn’t have far to fall since it seemed every tree had decided to lie down), and arriving this morning I notice the foliage look quite haggard, and the ground quite littered with plant detritus. On the way home through Zwevegem, I noticed fire and electrical crews scrambling to clear fallen power lines- many of which were lying about in the streets (the article notes Eurostar was held up by fallen power lines in Lille- a stones throw from Zwevegem). Trains were delayed, trains were cancelled. My bus was late to the station, and I was delayed an hour. I’ve never seen wind that strong in my life.

Every once in a while a sudden “burst” of rain, scarcely a second long, would fall as if someone dumped a bucket on your head. I watched in awe as a large pool of water slithered rapidly through the gutter all the way down the block past the bus stop. The stone trash cans in Kortrijk were knocked over, and the huge tarp sign from Café Cinquenta-Six in Kortrijk had ripped free and was pinned against the side of the building across the street, like one of those flat green chitins you can never peel off the rock in the tide pools. It looked like someone had painted it on the facade.

Fortunately, nestled among the urban buildings in Gent the wind was dampened, and settled for a reasonable dull roar. But get this- the meteorologists are certain it is going to snow in Belgium. Starting Sunday, there are supposed to be eight days of sub zero temperatures, dipping to -8 °C. I’ll finally get to see it snow! Hopefully it will be kinder to Europe than the wind.

More pictures (local news): http://www.standaard.be/Kanaal/Index.aspx?KanaalId=316