“The roof was pulled out of the house like Velcro”

Edam’s Hidde and Tess Schröder lay in bed on Friday afternoon to rest before driving to Switzerland with their three children. In a previous storm, Schroeder once said that the sky creaked as if the roof of the house might explode. Around 3:30 p.m. on Friday, during storms that caused damage to the entire area over Amsterdam, this turned out to be a correct estimate. We heard it rip. On Saturday morning, Hidde says at the front door of their stately Edam Channel home:

The torn roof is located a little further away in the garden of neighbor John Lagerburg. “I was in the barn and heard a bang. I thought it was my solar panels, but it was the neighbor’s roof that crashed over the dormer window,” Lagerberg says from the stairs. He repositions the ceiling tiles to the dormer window himself. All ceilings are already occupied.

fifteen phone calls

Also Nick Brandsema from Monnickendam. He actually made at least fifteen phone calls on Saturday morning. “Especially the ceiling tiles. If there is a tarpaulin under it, this is not a disaster, because it will remain dry. That’s why I’m going here first,” he said in front of Tess Schroeder and Heide’s house. It will rain in the afternoon. Then the roof below the torn roof will be materially damaged if not covered.

Also in the street, people approach the roofer Prandsima and ask if he wants to repair the damage they have done. There are no tiles on many of Edam’s roofs. A tree in the water lies across the Edam Achterhaven. On the other side of the historic town – about the size of a village – a tree fell on the house of Elsie de Boer and her husband. They saw it happen from their sitting room on a Friday afternoon. “He came to us. But fortunately things went very slowly. Only some of the roof tiles are broken and there is damage to the woodwork,” says de Boer, trying to beat the noise of the chainsaw, in her front yard, an acquaintance chops the tree into to cut.

De Boer seems elated. Fortunately, it is only physical damage. We believe in that. You can also have ceiling tiles on your head. This is much worse.”