[aftermath] that storm and its havoc

Last evenng I wrote of the approaching storm. I phoned my friend and asked if he had everythig battened down and he laughed. Not exactly miffed this blogger sure was puzzled. There was anger in his voice, sardonic laughter:

"I'll buy you a meal on Thursday if there's a storm. You'll buy me one if there's not."

"But the forecast on radio and television all day has been for gale force winds and rain like we've not seen before." I could hear the laughter of his daughter in the background. "Well, is that not so or is my Russian language so getting worse?"

"No, you're not mistaken. The whole town's been panicking all day."

"Well?"

"Let me explain something about Russia to you. The other evening when the storm did hit, there was no warning until twenty minutes before it. NONE. Result, six unprepared people killed when trees and masonry suddenly snapped and fell on them., devastation everywhere, as you well know and so on. Today everyone's panicking about a storm double the wind strength. It's not going to happen. Call me tomorrow morning and tell me how you got on."

I've just been on the balcony. There was no storm and we've just had a phone conversation. I've just learned a new fact about Russia.

UPDATE: Wrong yet again. A chap who just left said that in fact the storm did come through and the epicentre hit a town 60km away. Only the edge hit us with some rain. That accords pretty well with how it looked last night. The clouds were quite angry in the distance.