SATS Loc: Belgium

Last night we had winds of 70 mph, 80 mph just over the border in Rotterdam. I know you guys in the hurricane belt are used to more than this but for us it is unusual. There is storm damage reported over most of the region. Part of the roof of a building blew off in the night and landed on the canopy of a small filling station. Here the fire brigade (Called Brandweer here) are clearing up the mess.

I am not sure if this is technically Street or Photo Journalism but I think there is a bit of overlap.

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Voss

Nice photos. And they should qualify as Street. It's no different than a waitress cleaning a table or a cop directing traffic. It's people being people. And the guy on the far left, center photo, seems to have the routine down pat.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

It doesn't have to be a hurricane to do a lot of damage. Also, in areas where hurricanes are prevalent, the building codes are enhanced to alleviate wind damage! I hope there isn't too much more damage.

SATS Loc: Belgium

Thanks for clearing that up Voss

SATS Loc: Belgium

Thanks for your comment, thankfully we are told all is over for the forseeable period. One lady died in Belgium when a tree came down on her car, two in Netherlands but I don't know how. Another tree got the windshield of a school bus but no one was injured. There was a fair bit of building damage particularly to flat roves and a few high sided wagons tipped over. Now we are in the clearing up phase.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

I'm not familiar with the language. I assume Antwerpen means Antwerp but what does Brandweer mean? Wind can be rough on the infrastructure. Lucky no one was hurt on the school bus you mentioned. The others unfortunately were not as blessed with good luck. Good coverage of a bad event. Glad you made it through okay Sats.

SATS Loc: Belgium

Antwerpen is the proper name of the city, they shortened it just for us, isn't that nice of them. Mind you, the French being the French, call it Anvers but only amongst themselves and never directly to our faces. There is a legend that in ancient times there was a giant called Antigoon that stood in the river and stopped boats with his giant hands until they paid him a fee to let them dock. Our hero of the story was called Brabo who, reportedly was a cousin of Julius Caesar and he didn't think much of these goings on so he waded into the river with his trusty sword, cut off the giant's hand and threw it into the river. The word for hand is ant and the verb to throw is werpen, so Antwerpen means thrown hand. Well, that is the bollocks story for the tourists. It is more likely a corruption of the dutch version of 'On the wharves', a reference to the harbor.

The word Brand can either mean a flame or to burn, depending on how it is used and Weer in this sense means to resist against something, so a Brandweerman is a firefighter. Weer can also mean 'the weather' or to repeat something, just in case you were curious.

It was such a nasty day yesterday i would not have set foot outside except the lady wife needed to go to the gemeentehuis (city hall) for something and afterwards, since we were already out, we carried on to a big box supermarket for some bits and bobs. The little tank station above was opposite that supermarket

Btw, if you are ever thinking of whiling away your leisure hours learning another language, pick something other than Dutch, it is an absolute nightmare.