“Hopefully infrastructure is ready”: Marinas braced for storm

At sea and in the marinas in Blankenberge and Newport a so-called ‘entry and departure ban’ applies to avoid shipping as much as possible in the event of a storm tomorrow. In the marina of Nieuwpoort they have fastened everything extra well over the last three days.

“Each time strong winds are forecast, we will strengthen boats extra and we will check all boats again to see if we can make improvements”, says Maarten Desloovere of Nieuwpoort Marina.

(read more below the photos)

“Hopefully infrastructure is ready”

Many owners also come quickly to take a look to lay an extra line to protect their boat against the announced storm. Normally, sailors are quite aware of which wind is coming. And here too they are somewhat worried for tomorrow.

“Let’s hope the prediction is wrong. It’s been announcing it all week and then normally it goes down. Now it’s different, it stays high, it even goes up a little bit. It’s exceptional.

If the prediction is correct, then it will be exceptional and then we hope the infrastructure is resilient. Normally yes, but we look at it strangely.”

Roads closed and signage removed

Also building pavilions here in the harbor of Newport are extra secured with ballast.

And the N34 between Middelkerke and Ostend is now closed to traffic again. Especially if the storm winds come straight out of the sea tomorrow, this tram bed and coastal track will soon be unusable.

At the Wellingron Racecourse in Ostend a lot of signaling signs have been removed and also here on the dike Wenduine road workers are doing everything extra to secure. What is not properly secured, will simply blow away here tomorrow.