vagabond

To all my friends and anyone on APC who will be flying there, be careful.

From Associated Press:

GENEVA - Europe on Thursday was bracing for a severe storm, with coastal countries warning of floods and surges and the Alps regions expecting major snowfall.

Dutch coastal authorities were put on the highest weather alert since 1976. Officials prepared to close Europe's largest harbor in Rotterdam because of predicted storm surges as high as 13 feet and winds of up to 60 mph.

The storm was not expected to breach any of the dikes and dunes that protect the Netherlands, where more than two-thirds of the 16 million population lives below sea level.

Jan Kroos, spokesman of the Storm Flood Warning Service, told NOS state television that people should not be too worried. "We presume our water defenses will do what they're supposed to do," he said.

Britain's government convened a crisis committee to discuss a tidal surge that could lead to flooding on England's east coast.

The Thames River and Dartford Creek barriers will be shut down to cope with the expected 5-foot surge above normal sea levels.

The agency has issued seven severe flood warnings for areas in the eastern part of the country.

Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro ASA is cutting offshore production by 320,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and reducing southern North Sea platform staff because of the storm. The state-controlled oil company said it was stopping production and reducing staff at its Grane, Visund, Oseberg South and Heimdal fields until the storm passes.

Germany and Denmark could see wind gusts of up to 78 mph from the weather pattern, which is expected to last through Friday, said EUMETNET, a Geneva-based U.N. European network of 23 national meteorological services.

A moist northerly current in Central Europe also could cause high winds, "but even more damaging might be the extreme amounts of fresh snow to be expected on the northern fringe of the Alps," the statement said.

It added that more than three feet of snow could fall, "causing larger avalanches at a very early stage of the winter period."

ERJ135

That storm is the remnants of Noel that slammed my neighborhood last Sat