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Finally, Europe Has Its Own Natural Disaster
As a journalist, I find weather stories pathetic. It's mainly the use of all the tragic words I despise: devastating, gushing, torn into homes, etc. But people love them. There is nothing like a natural catastrophe that gets the readership numbers up. Now, with the high winds "blasting" across Europe, killing 45 people, European papers have stuff to write about.
Call me cynical, but I have always suspected that Europeans felt slightly inferior in the "natural catastrophe" realm. I mean, the occasional flood or hailstorm pales in comparison to all the weather events going on in the US: hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes...
But now, that's over! Europe finally has its own storm WITH A NAME - Kyrill. And, it has swept across most of Northern and Western Europe, heading east now. The funny thing is, Americans probably haven't even heard of it yet. Well, give the PR weather machine time, Europeans are new at this.
And speaking of which, here in Prague the winds hit above 100mph yesterday and are still going strong today. It's actually really nice to listen to the wind outside, rather than watching calm, gray skies for months.
Travel warning: check for airline and train service cancellations!
Filed under: Europe, North America, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, United Kingdom, United States
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Neil Jan 19th 2007 2:40PM
Classic. I love it! Just hope you don't get earthquakes like we have in California.
Gina Jan 21st 2007 4:28PM
Fantastic writing! Lets just hope that Europe never gets to the letter "I" and they name it after you....The storm would be prove to be as you mentioned, a journalist's dream, one that was resilant, strong willed and very surprising!- Keep up the insightful blogs!!!