Early in December 2013 cyclone "Xaver", a winter storm, affected northern Europe.
Force 12 winds and heavy snowfall were predicted along the storm's path,
and there were warnings of a significant risk of storm surge leading to
coastal flooding along the coasts of the North and Irish Seas.
German authorities reported waves up to six metres high,
which were the second highest on record since 1825.
Winter storm Xaver affected our beloved vacation island Sylt, one of the North Frisian Islands, as well.
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| Sylt, seen from the south, aereal shot [source: Wikipedia, photo by Ralf Roletschek] |
Right after Christmas we had the chance to travel to Sylt again, and one of our first beach walks took us the southern tip of the island, known as Hoernum Odde.
There the storm caused the biggest loss of land - more precisely: the tremendous loss of sand dunes.
The most obvious damages / loss of dunes we found here:
This dune, with a wodden visitor platform and a radar beacon on its top, used to be more than 50 meters away from the beach in summertime 2013!!!
The concrete block in the left was the basis of the radar beacon; now it's a kind of landmark on the beach.
The dune chain has protected the houses at the southern edge of the town of Hoernum for ages.
Now they are gone.
And many houses are now without their protected barrier - let's wait and see what will happen when the next severe storm arrives...
Some buffons (?) / wise guys (!) already predicted the end ("das Ende") of Sylt's southern tip - and built up the "Ende" sign from the flotsam where dunes several meters high stood some weeks ago.
Of course the strong winds of the storm conjured some beautiful stuctures on the beach, too.
So there's not really a reason yelp or whine... ;-)
Everything will fall into place again.
Hopefully.
