stapfam

On the storm--It was bad but the UK was prepared for it. The press and TV news have been warning us of it for a week or so and when it hit it seemed like a wimper. Wasn't like that at 5am this morning and locally we had wind strength up to 60 mph and Gusting higher. Quite a few trees down and roads blocked and several areas of flooding but as the only comparison was the Hurricane we had in 87- it was mild and not as strong.

But now come the disbelievers. The storm was not as bad as it was supposed to be so why did all the train companies cancell their services?- why no buses on the exposed routes? and why weren't the authorities out clearing the roads where there was a problem? Lots of negative people around but many train lines had trees down on them and some siganal damage. The trains did not run until those lines were clear and safe. Double decker buses were being blown all over the road so they were not run and I could not stand up in that wind so you can guess what it was doing to trucks and buses. And the local authotities were out clearing roads but when you have so many trees down- which ones do you clear first.

There have been a few fatalities but the storm in in Holland and Germany now and passing through very quickly. France has closed some motorways- stopped trains and the harbours are inoperable. Northern Europe saw what we were getting and stopped everything from what I can gather. But The UK and Europe has survived what can only be termed the worst storm in years and got away lightly too.