You all remember hurricane Sandy, right?
Well you probably don’t know this, but on Monday we here in Denmark celebrated Sandy’s one year anniversary by having a storm of our own.
Not just any storm, either – the worst storm in a decade!
Before you put on your panic hats (is that a thing?), relax. What’s considered “the worst storm” for Denmark is called a “Wednesday” in the Philippines.
That’s not to say there were no consequences. Two people died. Public transport was in shambles. It took me 4 hours to get home from work, instead of the usual 1 hour. Trees were uprooted and posters of politicians were torn down.
All in all, however, Denmark is back to functioning normally. We simply don’t get cataclysmic weather happenings here.
That reminds me. Did you know that we once had an earthquake in Denmark, too? We did. In 2008 an earthquake hit Sweden and decided to take a slight detour to Copenhagen to buy booze. Typical Swede.
The earthquake was 4,7 on Richter Scale when it hit Sweden. Do you want to know how bad it was once it got to Denmark? Let me tell you:
That’s me telling you stuff. You look so clueless!
It was around 6 in the morning and I was asleep. Suddenly, it felt like my bed started vibrating. My immediate reaction, of course, was to freak out and seek cover. Just kidding. My first and only thought was “Damn neighbours, why are they having a party this late/early?!”
With that I went back to sleep and slept until my alarm told me it was time to go to work. It was only when I got to the office and heard colleagues discussing the earthquake that I put two and two together (that’s four, by the way).
I remember the media making a pretty big deal out of it, too. There was an interview with a guy whose garden lamp fell over and broke. The interviewer, in all seriousness, was asking him detailed questions about the experience. The guy looked distressed and, while holding the broken lamp in his hands, said something along the lines of “You just don’t expect this kind of thing in Denmark!”
That’s true. You don’t expect any major catastrophes to happen in Denmark. Our disasters are little wannabe versions of their real equivalents.
And that’s, of course, a good thing. Let’s hope those wannabe versions never grow up.
As a bonus, here’s some BBC footage of what they refer to as “scenes of chaos” from the bad flooding we had in Denmark in 2011. WARNING: graphic content. Do not watch that video if you’re sensitive to any of the following:
- Cars almost having to stop driving, due to too much water
- People walking through water that reaches all the way up to their knees (!)
- Clouds
That wasn’t for the faint of heart, was it? I hope you all survived the ordeal!
Nest Expressed 
denmark just goes with the flow. i do believe, there’s a lot of alcohol in that flow, so maybe nothing ever seems so bad. 😉
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We drink our troubles away. All those traumatic thoughts about broken garden lamps!
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Glad things are back tomorrow. I was in the heart of Sandy here in NJ. Scary stuff! Plus as a native Californian I’ve been in more than my fair share of earthquakes too. Maybe I should move to Denmark!
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That should say back to normal grrrr
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“If I’m not back again this time tomorrooooooooooow, carry on, carry on…”
Where was I?
Yes, come to Denmark, we have mild annoyances and slight drizzle.
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I’ve nominated you for some awards. 😀 http://africolonialstories.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/lots-of-awards/
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Thank you! I used to do proper posts and play by the rules for these, but after a while it gets to be too much. So I graciously accept the award, but I don’t promise I’ll write a proper post about it.
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I love the way you mock your own country, Daniel; the ability to laugh at oneself is always an attractive characteristic. And I laughed at the garden lamp example.
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Well guess it’s easy for me to mock Denmark, since I’m still a relatively new Dane. Then again, I have no qualms about mocking Ukraine either.
Glad you enjoyed the post!
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I want to give you my condolences over your super-storm, but you made this post so gosh-darn funny it’s hard to commiserate… 😉
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I will accept your laughter as a token of commiseration!
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hahaha you just described a day in my life in Los Angeles.
“There was an earthquake last night?”
The only one I remember being really bad was the one in ’94. But I was also two, so I’m not sure what part of that is really memory or just people (still) talking about it a lot.
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Damn, tough baby, surviving an earthquake at that age! Did you gain any superpowers?
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Yeah, I have the ability to see through people’s wallets. It comes in handy.
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Unless you’re looking into mine. Then you’ll just get depressed!
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Oh my gosh, are you okay??? More importantly, ARE YOU KITTIES OKAY??? Cause they had to wait three extra hours for dinner, I’m thinking.
I love that the BBC title is “Scenes of chaos in Copenhagen” I seriously need to move to Denmark. It sounds absolutely idyllic. But before I move, I need to know, how good looking are the men there? And are there lots of single ones that like American women? Once I have that essential information, packing can ensue!
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I know. The poor cats surviving an ordeal like that only shows how strong spirited they are.
As for good looking men in DK…is that a trick question? I’ll be like “well yes, men are quite good looking”, and you’ll be all like “Ha! You like men!”. And you’ll be wrong. Except for George Clooney. He’s dreamy.
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Well I guess I’ve missed the news but how distressing for you guys 🙂 I see from the comment from Pam that she is in East TN, while I’m closer to Middle TN (yes there are 3 parts of our state, so now we just need someone from West TN and the trilogy is complete). Anyhow, we get some pretty good storms and flooding – in fact, expecting severe thunderstorms tomorrow. This is generally the time of year we get our tornadoes for some reason. I loved your descriptions of the fella who survived the earthquake – funny stuff 🙂
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I’ll be like the TN collector – gotta catch them all!
Yeah it really puts things in perspective when the worst thing that happens is a knocked over garden lamp!
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Yeah Tennessee! Daniel- the TN collector… sounds good.
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Good to see a fellow Tennessean – discovered via Denmark… lol 🙂
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What a great line… “Typical Swede”. It says so much without saying much at all. I also loved the line… “Trees were uprooted and posters of politicians torn down.” Ha!
My number one way not to wish to die is in a vehicular accident. My number two way is in a storm. So sad.
Here in East Tennessee we don’t get too much wild weather. For some reason in the past few years, the weather has brought more devastation than I can remember. Still yet, it’s not like other places. Denmark sounds like my kind of place.
I did watch the video. Chaos was a little strong for the reactions being shown, but all that water was dramatic.
A couple of years ago, a flood came to my neighborhood. A couple blocks over, the streets were flooded and a few less than stellar minded individuals decided to drive their cars through the flood. They ended up on their hoods waiting for rescue. We watched it on national news and laughed our asses off.
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I love how stubborn people get sometimes! “What’s that? A storm? The road is flooded? Well, I gotta get home, so onwards I go. Cars can float right?”
Yeah Denmark is a safe place in many ways. If the “scenes of chaos” from that video is the worst thing to happen in Denmark, we’re in good shape!
Weather’s been acting up all over the world. It’s like it’s got a bone to pick with us. What did we ever d…oh, right.
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I meant to tweet you to ask if you’d suffered any damages. I just read in the paper that Copenhagen had been hit hard by the storm, and since you’re the only one I “know” in Copenhagen, I thought of you. Poor little Django and Pebbles were probably shaking in fear!
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Ha, they were actually somewhat stressed. Other than that, everything’s alright. Watch that “flooding” video, you won’t want to see another horror flick after that!
Thanks for thinking of us Danes!
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I tried to watch it, but it won’t play for me. Probably because I’m downstairs walking on my treadmill while I work, and the signal is weak (first world problems). I’ll check it out later when I emerge from the dungeon.
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Oh, that poor guy at the end in the store. He looked so forlorn and helpless. Can’t say I blame him.
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Indeed. Probably the worst thing that ever happened in his life!
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