Going to Galicia: bit of a blow

We got a phone call late Thursday night telling us the school would be closed on Friday as they were expecting a bit of wind around lunchtime. By the evening it was gusting at around 190 KPH and we could hear the odd tree crashing down. I logged on to post an abstract to the good folks at BERA and the lights dimmed to a glow then all power went and the phone line stopped too. As the water system relies on a pump to draw the water from the well and another pump to circulate it to the taps and another pump to make the heating work we were down to dipping a watering can into the cold tank and collecting water from our downpipes for other purposes. We were rather pleased we had put the wood burner in or we would have had no heating or means of cooking at all. There was no way of getting out of Vilaboa for a couple of days as all of the roads were blocked. Unfortunately the camera was low on battery and we had no spares. When we got to the shops there were no batteries to be found either so there are only a few pics.
We drove to Ferrol on Sunday and then popped over to see Graham and Liz and found the same story everywhere although the centre of Ferrol did have electric there must be hundreds of thousands of eucalyptus down and many, many fruit trees and pine trees too. Trees you couldn’t wrap your arms round snapped off like matchsticks or torn out of the ground. In places it was reminiscent of the trees around Mt St Helen’s after the eruption in 1980. We had a peep of electric on Wednesday and it seems stable today but the phone has not come to life and the internet came on only for about 20 mins Wed evening. Carlos and Carlos came over and chopped up the trees that had landed on our land so we now have more that enough wood to see us through next winter although most of it is far too fresh and wet to be any use for a few months.
Being in the middle of it all we had no idea how far the storm had reached, it sounds like we got off lightly with only wind damage although there is some flooding locally it is fairly minor although it is much worse along the North Coast. We headed over to Rioforcado to check out a friend’s property and their neighbour Pepe told us it was the worst winter he had ever known…thank goodness for that we were hoping this was not the usual kind of Winter.

Every time I move house a great storm arrives in wherever I move to - to Portsmouth in 1978 in time for the worst snow for many years...back to Tyneside in 81 to face gales and the two coldest winters I have ever known...off to Sennen to face Michael Fish's non Hurricane...to St Just in summer 1990 to then face the great wind of Jan 21 1991 and have our house roof blown off..to galicia for the Grande viento de enero 23. Ah well here are some pics.....