Storm aftermath

Looking out the window, you wouldn't know there was a big storm yesterday. The sky is perfectly blue. The only clue is the sound of a chainsaw the next street over.

In typical German fashion, the street cleaning machine has already come by, and the street looks as clean as usual. Walking around the neighborhood here, the only evidence of the storm I saw was an abandoned umbrella that was turned inside-out.

I saw in reports that 5 people in Germany and 25 across Europe died as a result of the storm. Not surprising as I've seen pictures of a toppled crane, trees fallen on cars, trucks blown over. I read that the wind was measured at 118 mph.

Here's one report:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16687660/

With some additional pictures:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16696403/displaymode/1176/rstry/16687660/

I like this quote:
In Amsterdam, bicyclists who ventured out despite warnings from the fire department were blown over or, in some cases, blown backward.

I went out for a ride a little later, and saw many trees that were uprooted or that had broken off partway up the trunk. It was the most difficult flat-land ride I have ever done. The wind was still strong -- a constant 25, maybe 30 mph I would guess, with gusts. For those cyclists who can appreciate this, I was pedaling into the wind in a 39x19 gear (that's a low gear) on a perfectly flat road, and was going about as hard a pace as I could maintain.