Topic: Storm Alex

[Obelixx]

Thought we'd got away with it when it largely passed us by on Thursday night but she came round and bit hard last night with a tornado thru our plot just before midnight.   Tremendous roar and loud bangs!

Up at dawn to the sound of chainsaws from the neighbours who presumably have trees and branches down.   We have lost the roof of our open ended barns.  Two chunks landed right by the house, another big chunk and a beam stuck in a bay tree, a huge chunk of corrugated panels in the middle of the wildflower meadow and bits of beam flung far and wide including one impaled in the ground at 60°.  I shall keep that as a feature!

   

We rescued 6 chickens from the abattoir last Saturday.  Fortunately their house and pen were not in the way and the polytunnel escaped too.

[galina]

Glad the chickens and poly are safe Obelixx, but what an awful lot of damage.  The photos are pretty awful.  Glad you are ok.   

[gray1720]

Ouch! It's just wetter than an otter's pocket here in not-so-sunny Oxford, very glad to have missed what you've had!

[saddad]

Definitely the proverbial bad day at black rock!

[pumkinlover]

That beam on it's own is spectacular.
Presumably it came off one of the corrugated sheets or can a tornado lift up something so narrow?
Glads that you are ok and the chickens.

[Palustris]

Wow!!!

[Obelixx]

That beam is part of the roof structure.  There are two more lying on the ground nearby which makes that one even more impressive.  Another flew the other way and landed by a poplar I would dearly love to have seen demolished but it lives to fight another day.   It even was missed by a huge slab of several corrugated iron sheets and the wood holding them together!   

Other beams just fell on stuff below altho my treasures "sheltering" in and in front of my potting barn on the right escapes except for 3 wee thyme plants I'd raised from cuttings.   We've moved many plants away but rain and wind stopped play.  We'll nip out and do more when the wind and rain calms down so that it's clear for when chappies can come and do the big clear up.

OH's barn housed some machinery and his scarifier is definitely dead but the big strimmer and the hole maker seem OK.  Lots of fun to come with insurance and estimates and reconstruction.

I hope you chaps have stayed safe as the storm passed thru.  Doesn't look like much fun in the south east of France and nearby Italy at the mo where Alex is still running riot.

[Tulipa]

I am glad you and OH are safe Obelixx, and the chickens!  Take care x

[Obelixx]

Thanks Tulipa.  Between continuing wind which is making the remaining bits of roof creak and jump about a bit and rain making it just plain unpleasant, it's a bit dodgy trying to get in and rescue stuff and clear things that are not damaged.

Hoping to get quotes for a serious clean up and repair job starting tomorrow.   Businesses closed over the weekend, of course.

[Tulipa]

Hi Obelixx, I hope you have managed to get some quotes and your buildings at least made safe, fingers crossed for you.

[Obelixx]

Not yet Tulipa.   They are, understandably, busy but should appear on Thursday.

Meanwhile, OH has moved all the machinery he had stored in his barn to the left - sit on mower, push-mower, rotavator, hole-maker and strimmer all fine but aerator/scarifier very dead.    We moved all my bigger pots of plants from my "nursery" in front of the barns where they are shaded from the hottest sun and easy to water to a safer place and today I finished moving all the trays and pots of smaller plants and rooted cuttings and so on.   

The roof on OH's side is now perched precariously after more winds and more of my side has come down right where I'd had treasures.  That diagonal "caber" toss is buried deep and very firmly.   I shall make it a feature with a panel of what is now very bent and twisted rusty trellis.