A brutal storm crashed into the Dutch coast on Thursday causing gusts of wind up to 90 miles per hour. This might not have been so destructive in a place with some relief, like mountains and hills, but the Netherlands is famously flat. That led to many bad things happening to buildings and people.
The storm is dangerous. So far, there have been two confirmed deaths in the Netherlands, one caused by a fallen branch and the other by a fallen tree. Dutch police are investigating a third death that involved a man falling through a roof. It’s unclear if he was already up there or blown that way by the vicious wind.
It’s probably a good thing thing that warnings about the storm spread quickly via social media. Twitter and Instagram are full of jaw-dropping videos, wild stuff like people getting blown through the air by these winter winds.
Today in the #Netherlands @JimCantore @AriWeather @CherylNelsonTV @chris_tomer @JWatson_Wx #storm pic.twitter.com/6loegHyEuv
— Ronaldo Wilbrink (@WXRonaldo) January 18, 2018
Sometimes the wind took people’s bicycles with them:
#Storm bij het Strijkijzer pic.twitter.com/6M8ukNmir9
— Arnout Vos (@arnoutvos) January 18, 2018
Meanwhile, videos of roofs getting ripped off of apartment complexes and office buildings were pervasive:
Waanzinnig, complete daken worden weggerukt. #storm (via @paulschram) pic.twitter.com/vHbglN4HOE
— Johan Boef (@jboef) January 18, 2018
The destruction is of epic proportions. Here’s an entire warehouse losing its roof
Deel dak van loods Heuvelman Hout in #Ouderkerk a/d IJssel waait los door #storm. Hulpdiensten en gemeente ter plaatse. #Krimpenerwaard pic.twitter.com/9PwrJ3C5kS
— Robert Coomans (@RobertCoomans) January 18, 2018
Again, the wind is strong enough to move very large, very heavy objects. Here are some shipping containers getting tossed around like cardboard boxes:
had je iets besteld op Ali express ? kans dat het nu een beetje nat is… #storm pic.twitter.com/THgDjAV8e2
— Wouter Kamp (@Wouter_Kamp) January 18, 2018
At least this runaway Portapotty provides a little comic relief:
Dat een dixie verandert in een levensgevaarlijk projectiel #storm pic.twitter.com/jPLA5IUdsB
— Ivo Evers (@IvoEvers) January 18, 2018
It will obviously take a few days to comprehend the full scale of the storm’s destruction. In the meantime, flights are delayed and trains aren’t running across northern Europe. This monster storm is wreaking havoc everywhere from Scotland to Germany. It seems like poor little Holland, land of the windmills, got the worst of it, though.