Worst storm in 12 years is raging over Holland

And MAN, is it huge. It’s been wind force 11 since 10 in the morning, although it seems to be lessening now. A few people already got killed by falling trees, the roof of Amsterdam Central Station (certainly known to those who’ve been here) is reported to have collapsed, and just half an hour ago, a 737 skimmed the houses in my part of town by about 100 meters, way off course and audibly struggling to make the airport, 10 kilometers down the road…

Yikes.

Not having a garage, I moved my motorcycle right next to my car (like, 2 centimeters space in between). The car will act as a windshield or a safety net, depending on which way the wind blows. :slight_smile:

Last time I checked, it was still upright, so the system must be working.

How’s the rest of Europe doing?

Amsterdam out.

How fast is the wind, in knots?

Didn’t the wind knock over your bike once before?

Yes it did, hence my precaution. Last time, it only took a force 8 (beaufort) to knock it off the center stand, no less. :eek:

In knots?

Ah! http://www.landsailing.co.uk/beaufort.html

56 to 63 knots. Ye Gads. Over 110 km/h…

We’ve got it the same over here as well (as a rudimentary understanding of European geography would lead one to expect) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2365319.stm - 6 people killed by falling trees, almost all rail services suspended all day, a ferry collided with a frigate in Portsmouth harbour…

Luckily it’s not been too bad in the north of the country - highest winds we had overnight right here (according to our little anemometer) were 32mph/50kph.

We had it bad down here in Berkshire this morning. The winds were unbelievable. Wonder if it’s as bad as the October '87 storm?

Yep, here in London too. I went to bed late last night and kept waking up to hear things being blown over or away.

It was fairly brisk up here in coal country, few trees down, but so far it hasn’t been turning over lorries and things.

I’m glad I had the old chimney taken down though it was not very secure, and had plenty of weight in it.

Good luck, and stay safe, all our Yurpeen and Brit dopers.

[sub]TLD coughs bushfire smoke out of his lungs. Bloody weird global weather…[/sub]

Was woken up by sheet aluminium blowing off the building site next door (wait for the sound of breaking windscreens…)

Walked about 10 miles in London today (King’s X to Brick Lane, Tate, Leicester sq, Oxford Circus etc) Passed many-a-fallen-branch and could barely see for the dust in parts. The millennium bridge was wobbling around quite a bit also. (hurrah!)

Pete and Geoff (from Virgin Drivetime radio) are in Amsterdam today, and added concern goes out to Coldfire… Bloody Weather.

Some idiot died because he decided to walk onto the harbour pier in Scheveningen in a force 12 gale, despite signs prohibiting this. Got blown into the sea, and is unaccounted for.

Darwin always has the last laugh.

No way! The train station ROOF fell down?

Holy hannah, as my mother would say.

I don’t know about the rest of the UK or Europe, but here it seems to have definitely calmed down.

Wow!! I heard about this while watching CNN. Quite a few people in England died when trees fell on their cars. I hope that all our European dopers batten down their hatches and don’t suffer too much property or personal loss. Good Luck.

LaurAnge, turns out parts of the roof came down, and they closed the station as a precaution. Blown way out of proportion by the media: it was the parts above the quays (errr, is that the word?), not the station itself, and it was just a few shattered roof plates.

It’s calmed down to a force 6, 7 storm now. No personal losses here: but the Dutch death toll is at 6 now, which is almost unheard of. We’re used to the occasional flooding, but force 11 storms are rare.

It was windy as all hell here, but we didn’t get much rain.