A Georgia Girl in Germany

Last weekend we had quite a windstorm! We had a big one a few years ago also -- akin to a Nor’easter in the states. This year’s storm was an extra-tropical cyclone named Xynthia, and struck all across Western Europe with hurricane-force winds. There was quite a bit of damage, and unfortunately a few people were killed in the storm. MacKenzie and Benjamin stepped out back and had fun playing in the wind. They were tickled that the wind was blowing their sweatshirts as much as it was. They even got a good laugh when MacKenzie’s shoe blew off and across the yard.

When we saw through the back window that a lawn chair was blowing across our yard, we figured we should bring it in. Then we stepped out front to bring in the two there as well. When we opened the door, however, the first of several ceramic roof shingles crashed onto our driveway and shattered. Fortunately, Zachary still had one foot inside, so the shingles didn’t crash on top of his head! Only three fell to the ground, and a fourth one is still stuck in the gutter.

We waited a few minutes, then carefully braved the winds to bring the two chairs inside and clean up the broken shingles.

About an hour later, we opened the front door again, this time to gather our three trash/recycle cans that were blown into our front bushes. Once again, when the door opened, a shingle crashed onto the driveway in front of us. This time the shingle was from the other side of my bedroom window. Only one fell, but two others are loose and still hanging on.

I carefully picked up the broken pieces, while MacKenzie kept a watchful eye out for any indication that more would fall, then I retrieved the trash/recycle cans. Even laying them down wasn’t enough to keep them from blowing away, so I had to hide two of them from the wind by placing them on their sides between the van and the side of the house. I filled the third one with the broken shingles, which gave it enough weight -- when on its side -- to keep it from blowing away.

Once the wind settled down a bit, Benjamin, MacKenzie and I went for a short hike (the last of the requirements for him to earn his Tiger Cub patch). We saw at least three mangled trampolines with bent metal frames -- one of which had blown into an open field with its legs sprawled out flat. Xynthia was not friendly to trampolines! We also saw this tree that was completely uprooted and across a pathway. We discovered several other completely uprooted trees on the way to and on base in the next few days as well!

Labels: Benjamin, Germany, MacKenzie, Zachary