Storms in South West France

[Phil Voice]

Hello all This is a brief message to say that I am without electricity at the moment after the the most amazing storm. I am currently running a tiny generator ( ironically bought after the last great storm left us without power as we prepared to open the gite for the first time). Power went off at about 12 noon yesterday (24th Jan.) and we are still without (Sun 6.45pm). Crews are working locally to restore power but the farms and houses are so disparate that I am sure it will take time. There is an estimate of possibly another 3-4 days from EDF. I can see a I have a lot to catch up on and those of you who have sent me messages, could I ask that you give me a bit of time to get power restored and catch up. It is an inconvenience but also quite a romance as we ate by candlelight and took a walk at 10.30 pm last night before retiring to bed. Mr Bertrand, our neighbour, has taken in the contents of our freezer and I have some repairs to do to my workshop and quite a few tiles to reposition. I will catch up with the network soon and I apologise for the lack of a newsletter yesterday. All the best. Phil

[Vanessa Langford]

Hi Phil
Sorry to know you are without electricity.

It makes us realise how much we rely on electricity when we don't have it eh? And soooo quiet!
A few hours without it is quite fun...get out the candles stoke up the fire... but any more than that gets frustrating.
It's good you have a small genny to tide over the essentials. I have visions of your children taking it in turns to peddle really fast on a bike going nowhere hooked up to the generator!

[Craig McGinty]

Tempête 24 janvier 2009 LA FERIA
Uploaded by GALAKTIKMAN

Just to give you an idea of how strong the storm in France was yesterday, here is a look at an area towards the coast of the Landes in the south west of France.

Wind speeds were around 150km/h and the Landes is home to vast tracts of pine forest, a large proportion of which has now been toppled.

Phil is roughly two hours inland from this area.

[Phil Voice]

Thanks Vanessa and Craig

I think that we have been lucky. Some of the locals have not been so fortunate, The first picture shows the remains of a barn. The whole exterior structure has collapsed, leaving the contents exposed. As I took the photo, the lady of the house was behind the barn surveying the damage.

It really was quite hairy at times with terrifying gusts that literally shook our stone house. Above the local noise of the wind at tree level there seemed to be a constant roar that reminded me of a jet plane at take off but remaining stationary. This lasted for about four hours like this as the worst passed by.

The whole storm was pretty strong for at least twelve hours and at about 4pm on the Saturday, it was as though someone switched the fan off and the noise too.

The second picture shows another neighbour who's tiles peeled back with one of them flying thirty feet from the house.

I am still on a generator and have no idea when I will be back on-line properly.

Best wishes.

Phil