Yesterday, between 06h45 and 08h45 a sudden gale force wind of 185 km per hour swept over the Aquitaine, leaving damage and destruction in its wake.
I was driving along a little country road when suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, the wind came up -- like a hurricane, blowing massive trees over the road, tearing branches off others, making sheets of corrugated iron fly through the air as if they were paper. When I crossed the Dordogne river I could not believe my eyes -- big waves of at least one meter were being blown upstream -- it looked like a section of the sea on the Wild Coast of Southern Africa! A frightening sight to behold!
The firemen in the region were working overtime attending to calls of people hurt, motorbikes swept off the road, trees having fallen on homes -- in a matter of two hours more than 1300 urgent calls were attended to, and many more less urgent ones.
The electricity in most of the province was cut for the rest of the day due to tree branches fallen on wires. So far, we know of only one person that was killed -- an aged woman who had gone back to sleep after lighting a candle and when her candle was blown over it set the room alight. She died of smoke inhalation.
In Bordeaux the trams were unable to move as trees were blown across the tracks, and in the harbours along the coast, hundreds of boats were blown right out of the water and left, completely wrecked, on dry land.
Apparently the wind storm was caused by an unexpected low pressure front that hit the coast further south at about 06h00. Within minutes the alarm was called and thanks to the quick reaction and readiness of the emergency services, much more damage and loss of life was avoided. Bravo to the Pompiers and Emergency Services!
I came back home as fast as the wind allowed me to, only to find that my beautiful gazebo by the pool was crumpled into a magled mess of steel and canvas - and the discovery even more saddening was that, as it had not been bolted into the tiles, it was not covered by insurance! Isn't that just the way of things!.......
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