Wind gusts of up to 145 kilometers per hour, enormous damage to houses, trees that have been ripped out of the ground and a death in Haarlem: summer storm Poly caused enormous havoc and sadness. The storm disrupted our province in a matter of hours.
Last night it was still code yellow and little seemed to be going on, but early this morning the KNMI finally scaled up to code red. The peak of the storm was expected not much later: between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.
All kinds of measures are soon taken: Schiphol cancels flights, the Dutch Railways adjusts the timetable, students’ tests are postponed and the municipality of Amsterdam raises the barriers at the much-discussed Weesperknip.
It goes off
In the meantime it goes wild. Around 08:50 am the first trees fall in Haarlem. At the same time, a Domino Day occurs on the A9, one tree after another has to suffer. A traffic jam ensues. Then the NL-Alerts also pour in: ‘Stay indoors’, is the warning.
A little after 9 a.m., the police receive a report of a tree that has fallen on a car on the Marnixstraat in Haarlem. There are two people in that car. The woman in the passenger seat died of her injuries not much later.
Epicenter
Haarlem later seems to be the epicenter of the storm, if one looks purely at the damage. The Kennemerland 112 network is overloaded and photos of fallen trees and damage to houses flood into the NH editorial office. The Molijnstraat fares badly: a whole row of trees falls against the houses.
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Around half past nine GVB decides to stop all trams and buses in the capital. There is no power in several places due to broken overhead wires. A tram derails shortly before and several people are injured in the city because trees fall on cars with occupants.
Despite the fact that wind gusts with a hurricane force of 131 kilometers per hour are now being measured on the Houtribdijk, not everyone is taking measures. The Hilversum weekly market will continue as usual. Although the market people don’t have a lot of business.
Power failure
The storm not only causes visible, but also invisible damage. Thousands of North Hollanders, including 25,000 people from Purmerend, are without power for hours. Roots of fallen trees rip the cables out of the ground. Some have to do without power until well into the afternoon.
Around half past 1 code red is over. Despite the fact that there are still many traffic jams, the insurance claims are pouring in and the bizarre damage is becoming clear, peace is slowly returning within the province.
Clean up that mess
The cleanup and inventory of the storm damage will begin. Insurer Interpolis announced at the beginning of the evening that 500 claims had been received, two thirds of which came from North Holland.
Some people take matters into their own hands and grab their own chainsaw from the shed. Others are waiting for the fire brigade. The first buses will start running again around a quarter to three, and train traffic will also be partially restarted an hour and a half later.
The misery slowly becomes fun for some: children play on the fallen trees. According to the fire brigade in Castricum, that is not very wise, because trees can still fall over.
At the moment it is still unclear when the trains will run according to schedule again and what exactly the damage caused by the storm. For the time being, the NS has announced that train passengers must take into account the cancellation of trains and delays on Thursday.