Heard about the storm in Europe? Have you ever been caught during a natural disaster while vacationing in Europe?
Oct 28th, 2002, 06:16 AM
#1
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Heard about the storm in Europe? Have you ever been caught during a natural disaster while vacationing in Europe?
http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/28/europe.storm.ap/index.html<BR><BR>Any advice on how to handle this type of situation? What preventive measures to take ahead of time?
Oct 28th, 2002, 07:16 AM
#2
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Nevere caught in anything like this during overseas travel, though at least two trips here in the US come to mind that were turned upside down by phenomenal storm (rain) or blizzard.<BR><BR>But I think of events like this and the Prague flood - - and chuckle - - whenever someone asks a question about the weather in such-and-such a place in such-and-such a month.<BR><BR>Floods, in Prague, in August - - yeah right. Who knew!?<BR><BR>Hope some good stories come out of this post, Maira - - good "thread-starter".<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>
Oct 28th, 2002, 07:58 AM
#3
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Maira-I just want to say that I am so happy you used the word "preventive" instead of "preventative". If I hear one more person say preventative, I'm going to scream.<BR><BR>I was caught in a severe snowstorm in Ireland once, and did the only sensible thing, which was spend 5 full days and nights in the pub by the fire.
Oct 28th, 2002, 08:08 AM
#5
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Languages change and evolve. It used to drive me crazy to hear about someone getting "orientated", rather than "oriented", during orientation. Perhaps the expression <<to "preventate" a problem>> will come sometime in the future of the English language. We don't have "preventation" yet, so you're right, I guess. There is no need for this "variant", preventative.<BR>
Oct 28th, 2002, 08:15 AM
#6
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Yes--an ironic twist.<BR>We left our FL home when a hurricane was approaching, so we took PREVENTIVE measures before we left. Well, a week later the storm turned right and followed the Gulf stream and hit us full blast on the Dingle peninsula of Ireland. It was only about 65 mph then, but trees were blown down and the rains were hoizontal. Same storm--ironic !
Oct 28th, 2002, 08:31 AM
#7
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In 1990 while on a business trip, a similar storm hit Europe. I was staying in Cambridge when the tremendous winds hit. All one night the storm raged. Lorries were being blown over on the motorways. So I drove to Heathrow and caught a plane to Frankfurt where things were a bit calmer. Many thousands of trees were uprooted all over Europe. A similar type storm hit 2-3 years ago. We saw many areas of devastation, especially in the outlying areas of Interlaken. I believe many large trees were lost at Versailles during that weather system.<BR><BR>Jinx Hoover
Oct 28th, 2002, 08:34 AM
#8
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I am 20 minutes from downtown Amsterdam. The wind was bad and so was the rain but I figured they were used to it. I could barely walk across the street without the wind and the rain knocking me down. I got back to the train station and no trains were running at all! There was no way to get home. It took me 3 hours to get home and I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO get there. I had to get a cab. My day was a nightmare. I would have rather been at work! <BR><BR><BR><BR>
Oct 28th, 2002, 09:27 AM
#9
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I was in Dublin when the tail end of Hurricane Charlie hit it (I think that was mid-1980s). Nothing much to do, but I was glad I returned to my hotel early that day when the rain and wind started getting really bad (weather was never that great in Dublin when I was there--it was Sept.) as the next day we heard that some folks got blown into the River Liffey, I think, and died maybe. <BR><BR>Just sat it out in my hotel which luckily was on the edges of the city and not low -- the hotel was very nice and allowed the neighbors to come into it who were escaping the flooding, so when I got up early morning after a restless night (lots of noise and rain and wind), the entire lobby was full of local families sitting around on the floor. I was fortunate that my room was on the side of the hotel away from the wind as the folks on the other side got their rooms flooded, I heard, from the rain coming in the windows, it was so hard. <BR><BR>Of course, my flight on Air Lingus to Edinburgh was cancelled early morning ... eventually we got to the airport in the afternoon (it was beginning to clear, the worst was over) and got on a small prop jet which flew to Edinburgh okay, although I was very nervous (especially when the flight attendants were concerned that you filled out the cards with next-of-kin on them). But that flight was fairly uneventful.
Oct 28th, 2002, 07:16 PM
#11
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I don't know that any PREVENTIVE measures could have prepared me for my experience, which was to be caught up in the horrendous storms in France in 1999, where whole forests were destroyed. I was driving to Lalinde to work out a problem with my electricity bill (nearest EDF-GDF office is there). The winds were fearful and the rivers were raging, and there was already destruction of significant proportions all around me. I started across the bridge over the Dordogne at Lalinde, which is a tiny bridge, barely wide enough for two cars to pass. There was a huge semi on its way over, and I waited for him to get past me, then started across the bridge. It was raining furiously, and as I crossed the bridge I realized a HUGE tree was sailing down the river toward the bridge - and me. I raced across the bridge, just missing the tree crashing into the side of the bridge. Lucky for me there wasn't much traffic on that bridge that day.
Oct 28th, 2002, 08:19 PM
#12
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We were in the countryside west of Paris (between Chartres and Giverny) in June 2000. Saw huge stacked piles of tall trees that had blown down in the 1999 storm; they looked like matchsticks. Can't imagine the power of that storm.<BR><BR>We were in a little snowstorm in the Black Forest in June of an earlier year. Seemed really strange to walk through falling snow in June!
Oct 29th, 2002, 01:54 AM
#15
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I have read with great interest all the posted experience, (INCLUDING the "controversy" with the correct term preventive vs preventative; does anybody knows for sure??)<BR><BR>I've been in a middle of storms (thunder, rain, snow) many a times and it is scary enough when you are home, let alone in another country. St. Cirq reminded me the ocassion my husband and I were driving back to Paris from Orleans. It had rained for some hours and the river was so closed to flooding the road; kind of scary. Since we were sightseeing all day, we were never aware of the flood warnings. Lesson learned; check the weather forecast for this type of events daily when you are abroad. My German friends tell me this was a very scary one, loss of lives, sadly.
