After the tempestuous weather and the
polar vortex ceased to trouble the USA and Canada, at least for now, it
appears that its rage has turned upon Europe. Enjoying the spring-like
weather whole January long, three days ago we were brutally confronted
with the winter in its harshest form. The unusually warm weather caused
that the enormous quantities of the water from Mediterranean Sea have
evaporated and concentrated in the massive rainy cyclone, pushed
northwest by the winds from the northern African and Middle East
deserts. At the same time the very cold anticyclone started to drift
from Russia toward southeast. They clashed together right above the
southeastern Europe, with the disastrous consequences on the ground. A
great deal of central and northern Italy, including Rome, was flooded,
and so was also the south of Slovenia, while Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria,
and Romania got the enormous quantities of snow, between 1,2 - 1,5 m
high. On top of that the extremely strong wind, blowing with gusts up to
160 km/h, created the snowdrifts up to 5 meters high. Hundreds of
people had to be rescued from the vehicles, stranded in the snowdrifts
on the highways.
Postojna - everything is covered with the ice
Slovenia got its share of the heaven-sent "blessings" too.
While the northeast woke yesterday into the 4 feet thick blanket of
snow, the real disaster hit the southeast. Heavy icy rain, chilled with
the notorious local cold western wind Bora, dressed the whole region,
some 40 miles in diameter, into the icy armor up to one inch and more
thick. The branches, tree tops, and the whole trees cracked massively
under the weight of ice, falling everywhere - on the roads, railroad
tracks, cars, power lines. Those latter were tearing apart even by
itself, not able to support the massive weight of the ice anymore. Here
and there even the masts, wooden, concrete, or steel, went down with
them too. In just few hours the land turned not into the winter
fairytale but winter nightmare, closely resembling those scenes from
Arctic. The life without lights and heating begun, and those still
having the old coal stoves in their homes soon realized how lucky they
are.
Broken trees lining the road toward the Postojna downtown
While the road workers, firemen, and the members of the Civil
protection forces cleaned relatively fast the roads, at least the main
and most vital ones, and made them passable, this could not be said for
the electricians. Deep snow, covered with the layer of ice, made the
access to each power line mast, not standing next to the road, a painful
task, and the ice coating made the climbing all but impossible. To make
the things even worse, the strong, icy north wind turned their work
into the hell. On top of that, when working in the forest areas,
constantly falling trees not only turned their efforts into Sisyphean
task but also endangered their lives. Even three days later, Postojna, a
city with some 9,000 inhabitants, and many surrounding villages are
still without the electric power. It was said it will remain so at least
for the next four days. The damage in the forests is enormous - over
6,000 square miles of them, mostly the finest spruce trees, are
devastated.
Austrian Taurus motor stranded at Prestranek
Postojna - stop for the trains that are not coming
The thick sleet and the falling trees completely blocked the
railroad traffic. As I write this, three days after the storm, not a
single train has yet moved, except for the special maintenance vehicles
carrying the track workers to the tree-blocked places. While the
Slovenian Railroads (SZ) have managed to replace somehow the passenger
transport with the buses, the freight transport on the line from Koper
and Trieste completely stalled. The problem is not just the catenary on
which the thick ice acts as an insulator, but also the tress falling all
the time on the tracks, tearing the catenary wires, and making even the
diesel haulage useless. The direst consequence is the complete blockage
of the Slovenian sole port Koper, which generates the 60% of the whole
freight traffic on the SZ network. The damage here has not been assessed
yet, as it accumulates every day of the standstill.
Public announcer at Postojna station
While the sleet is not that rare in these places, prone to the
often collisions of two or even three different weather fronts - the
Mediterranean, the continental, and the Alpine, not even the oldest
people remember one so bad and causing so much damage. The sycamore
trees, lining the road to the Postojna passenger depot, witness this in
the most brutal way. Planted in 1850s, when the railroad construction of
the Vienna - Trieste line reached this town, they survived 160 years
without the problem - until this storm. Now they are almost completely
broken, with only the trunks and the thickest branches remaining.
Everything else, including the tree tops, is on the ground.
Icicles everywhere. The rear of the train stalled at Prestranek yard
On Saturday, the second day of the storm rage, I went to the
three consecutive stations on this line, interestingly all starting with
P: Postojna, Prestranek, and Pivka, to record the sleet and its
consequences. While the wildest furry has been over, the icy rain was
still falling and the wind was still strong, making the photographing
conditions quite miserable, especially for the cameras which were
completely soaked. Even my old bones were frozen, and only the strong,
hot teas, enhanced with the hefty dose of rum and consumed every so
often upon the body's demand, prevented me from the worst.
The sycamore trees planted 160 years ago when the railroad reached Postojna. They survived a lot, but not this winter
Clearing the havoc at Pivka
It will take some time before the owner will drive it again
From yesterday the sleet affected area spread
practically over the whole country. At present around 100,000 households
or around 15% of population is without electric power. Power wires are
falling down everywhere, either because of the falling trees or just
under the weight of the ice. Practically all secondary roads are closed
because of the trees, while the highways are icy and the people are
advised to refrain of any travel. The railroad traffic is practically at
standstill because two mainlines, the one from Italy and Koper and the
one from Austria (Also because of the 1.5 - 2 m high snowfall there) are
closed and not generating any traffic for the rest of the network.
Too many passed by this sign with the broken wrists and ankles
The whole situation has been proclaimed as the natural catastrophe of
the national proportions and our lady prime minister, visiting most
affected places today, already said we will ask the European Union for
the financial assistance because of the enormous damage, as we are entitled for this help in such circumstances.
Today I have opened new line of communication (for me, that is) with the world, that piece of it that might be interested in what I have to say or show.
As much as I'll use this tool, it will be mainly about photography, more specifically about railroad photography and railroads, as inevitably both themes go together hand in hand, or as we say here in these places where I live, like shirt and ass.
What actually triggered me to start blogging was my accidental bump into this option, refinedly offered to me by Google when I edited settings of my YouTube account. Curiosity has won (since I'm not a cat I guess it won't kill me, at least not in this instance), one click followed another, and now I write this lines. Ah, well, if I'll have something to say I'll put it down here, otherwise the blog will stay dormant. No harm in this.
Nuff said...
What I'd like to say this time is my joy about my new discovery. Of course, it's discovery just for me, not for the rest of the world, or if I paraphrase one of the most notorious sentences - That's one small step for the mankind, but giant leap for me...
So, what's all about? Well, in the morning, when after the long time - actually since February - I started again the Photodex's ProShow program for the slide presentations and I was greeted by pop-up window telling me an updated version is available and I should check if I'm eligible for the free update.
Of course I checked and it showed I am eligible, so I downloaded the new, 3.2 version, and installed it. Among the new items offered there is an option to load ProShow slide show directly to YouTube. I've always considered YouTube to be place for the videos, not for the slide shows - the place for the latter is, or was, the Photodex's own website. However, this site has one serious glitch - only the PC owners can watch ProShow created shows - Mac owners are simply left on the dry.
I have several shows on this site and it always annoyed me that some of my friends with the Macs cannot see them. Therefore I grabbed this new opportunity with the both hands and immediately tested it with one of my old shows. Of course, as it usually goes, the thing didn't work and I was getting upload error messages all the time. Not throwing the gun into the bush I tried it another way. I saved the show as a Flash Video (.flv) and then I tried to upload it directly to YouTube. Of course it worked, why shouldn't; after all this is the standard and only ignorants like me should be thrilled about this.
Few minutes later, when YouTube has digested my show, I was able to watch it there. Well, the images are smaller and not that sharp and there are some glitches here and there in fading, but hey - Mac owners can see it too, and PC owners don't need to download and install ProShow viewer before they can watch the shows - something that makes every owner of the already overloaded PC to quaver at the very thought of it.
Now the new line is opened for my shows to reach the wider audience (in the few first hours it already scored 10 views without being announced to anyone plus one 5-star rating), and the rest of my shows will follow as my time will permit.
Now if I only figure out how to upload my show to this blog...
Here it is, I hope!
Nope, it doesn't work... It keeps saying "Video is no longer available". I don't know why, because it is still accessible on YouTube. Hm, weird... I'll try to figure out tomorrow; tonight let's try with a different approach - direct loading from the computer to the blog. It works...
