Hurricane

On Thursday morning we woke up to rain and we all walked to school.  Little did we know that the afternoon would bring a hurricane.  Seriously!!  A freaking hurricane in Berlin.  Not in a million years would I have imagined that there were hurricanes here.  What with the hurricanes and the mosquitoes it is *almost* like we are living somewhere tropical... but oh yeah, minus the HEAT! 

Benjamin had library day
and new book to read for the ride

So to be fair it was *just* hurricane force winds not an actual hurricane but it was scary and even more scary was that I didn't have any clue it was coming or happening until it was over.
Josie had swim practice and she has asked me to ride with her one way which I'm fine with.  On Thursday she asked if I would ride with her from school to practice and then she would get herself home on the bus.  Because Marty was out of town Benjamin had to come with me.
We meet Josie and are off to the pool.  Nothing really out of the ordinary.  But as Benjamin and I head home around 4 we notice that it is super windy.  Not just super windy.  REALLY super windy but I'm thinking this is Berlin.  It isn't like they have tornadoes here.  I didn't even think of a hurricane.  We make it home and are shocked watching the trees our yard and across the street as they are blowing every which way.

Josie texts me and says she is at the bus stop and has to wait a few minutes for her bus.  She says "Mom, it is SUPER windy here"  I tell her I know and to stay inside the little bus shelter and watch for falling branches.  After a few minutes she texts back and says that this bus is not going to run because of the storm and she has to walk to the other bus stop. 

She knows where this other stop is but has only been there a time or two.  I get a bit worried at this point but figure this next stop is much bigger so surely the buses will run from there. 

A few minutes later she says the two buses we normally take are a 15 and 20 minute wait (there is a reader board that tells you when the buses are coming) She then asks if I know if a different bus, one we have never taken, goes toward Zehlendorf?  I have no idea but I look it up and tell her it does. 

I wanted to say just wait there for the 15-20 minutes in the shelter.  It would be the safest place.  But I let her make up her mind and take a different bus.  I told her how far it would get her toward our house before it turned in a different direction but I told her she needed to confirm with the bus driver before she got on.  She did all this and thank GOD.  Her bus made it nearly to our little downtown area (about 1 mile from our house) before every bus in the city shut down. 

The bus driver made everyone get off the bus and all buses and public transportation across the city of nearly 4 million came to a screeching halt.  The sbahn trains were shut down and several of the ubahn trains were shut down due to trees on the tracks. 
She texts me that she is going to walk home.  The wind is still blowing but not quite as hard.  Benjamin and I put on our shoes and tell her which road we are walking down and meet her about half way. 
Even though I was pretty freaked out about it all - having her out in the storm by herself, having no car to go rescue her if she needed it, having no German to ask for help if we needed it I was in awe of her that she kept her wits about her, figured out a plan and in the end made the very best choice to get on that next bus. If she had waited it would have been a 3+ mile walk in the storm to get home.  Yes, doable but not the safest.
On our walk to meet Jose we saw the devastation from the storm around our house.  Trees and large branches were down everywhere.  Then I started seeing people posting pics on FB about the stations. 
SO SO SO thankful we all made it home safely without too much trauma other than to me ;-)

The overflowing S-bahn station

One friend said her husband had to wait for 7 trains until there was room on one of them.  Crazy!!  We had a long talk that night about her always having her (charged!) cell phone and carrying some cash in case she needed it in an emergency.   Every day here are new things to learn and learn to do better.