Severe Weather Update

Let us update you on the weather we're having today: hurricane. Yep. Hurricane-force winds and downpours are ravaging northern Europe. There's even an article on CNN if you're interested in the gritty details. The government is urging people not to ride bikes, as most of the bikes are being blown over and even flipping people around backwards. John has the car (and did not have to drive on any major freeways), so he had an easy time getting to work this morning. Erin's trips to and from work were not so easy. Luckily, she did opt NOT to try to ride her bike to work today. However, there are so many public transportation accidents and break-downs that it took an hour to take the trams to work rather than the usual 25-30 minutes. The trams had pretty much stopped running by the time she left work this evening, so she ended up taking a bus and then walking about 15 minutes to the apartment. The walk wasn't so bad as she tried to sheild herself from the hurricane-force winds as much as possible against buildings. The most dangerous part was avoiding getting hit by empty aluminum soda cans and other debris flying through the air at 50 mph.

Although John got to work before the worst part of this storm hit, he might have trouble getting home tonight. Officials are telling people not to drive unless they absolutely have to because the wind is flipping autos over on the freeways and there is a lot of dangerous debris (like parts of buildings, 100-foot trees, pieces of wall along the freeway) flying about. John has told everyone at work that he's not letting any of them leave for their own safety. Of course, John's been working until midnight anyway, so maybe by then it will be a bit calmer.

If you're interested in pictures, here are some that were taken before it got dark today. Erin would take a picture of the large pine tree that blew over behind our apartment and is now about five feet from our kitchen window (blowing dangerously close sometimes), but it was dark by the time she got home to discover the situation.

In the words of John, it's "Commotion!"