The storm or storms that passed through the Loire Valley three nights ago caused a lot of damage in the Blois area, including the grounds of the Château de Chambord and villages in that area. The worst of the storm tracked southward from the right bank of the Loire through Chambord toward Saint-Aignan. One village just five miles east of us was especially hard hit. We have friends over there, including an American couple who moved here 15 years ago and the man who owns and operates the landscaping business we've hired for the past 12 years or so to cut down dead trees in our yard and to trim our long, tall, wide laurel hedge every year in autumn.
Our American friends told us yesterday that they lost quite a few big trees to the high winds the storm brought. They've been busy filing insurance claims. The mayor of Couffy has declared the storm a major natural disaster for the village. Our friends have talked to some of their neighbors who have lived there for decades and nobody has ever seen anything like this kind of wind damage in Couffy before. Walt and I were very lucky this past week that the storm didn't cut through the Saint-Aignan area. The fact is, trees were blown down over at the Beauval zoo (a mile or so from here), which had to close for a day to clean up the debris.
I'm not posting anything else today. I don't know if you'll be able to view the video I'm linking to here. Let me know.
That was a close call! The damage shown on your link to "la Nouvelle Republique"....
ReplyDeleteto bring down pylons like that it must've been tornado like!
But it seems similar to when Xynthia blew through.... some bits completely untouched, others thumped by a large hand.... why just one row of maize over... strange!!
The plants will heal themselves, the trees won't... and as for replacing 6 or 7 main powerline pylons... that is going to be very tricky and time consuming!! Yes, you must've been lucky to have been missed if Beauval zoo was damaged enough to close for tidying up....