The night/morning of January 11/12 the wind whipped through Buenos Aires at top speeds of 60 km/h. More than 140 trees toppled in the storm and over 22 cms of rain pelted the city. Our windows shook and rattled, the shutters banging in place. It was a sight and sound to behold.
The downed trees smashed cars, damaged roads and two people were hurt. Most unfortunately, one young man was electrocuted by a downed wire.
I love the trees of Buenos Aires, but they are not trimmed much and grow really tall. The cathedral effect they cast over narrow streets is delightful, however that grace and beauty can come at a cost when storms roll through. This trade off might need to be re-examined if the weather patterns keep tending to extremes.
Thanks to Katie who tipped me off to Wayne from "Southern Cone" with his lead to the article in Clarin.
By the time I got out to see some of the damage on the afternoon of the 13th, it looked like a lot of the trees had been cleaned up (at least in Palermo). There still remains a lot of repair work. 42 cars were damaged and I don't know how many sidewalks and roads. The parks guys are keeping busy.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
January 14, 2010
January 12 Rainstorm
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1 comment:
It was shocking to us when we walked to "our" park with the dog during the last big storm and resulting tree cutting to see so many trees cut in half ! Not down, not topped but with great tall limbless trunks sticking up .. I don't understand :)
It can be quite scary here when these storms come along, huge palm fronds falling from the trees plus branches ..
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