Storm Story

At some point yesterday, a massive storm front (referred to as "Xavier") came across the northern section of Germany (mostly from Kassel to Koln). 

My general view would be that it neatly fits into the Hurricane-level status....probably to around a stage one Hurricane.

The thing is....Germany is not really a place that can readily handle this, and it's triggered a massive amount of problems.

A number of deaths have been reported.  Damages are extensive.  Rescue workers are probably pulling 16-hour shifts, and likely will continue through the weekend.

Railway travel?  Mostly all shut-down.  Some tracks are open today...but to a minimum degree.  A lot of people yesterday were basically told to exit the trains and go find accommodations....which becomes a difficult thing because there just aren't that many hotel rooms to be found.

The TV news crowd are carrying video of the various stations, and most are today crowded, with people trying to figure out some option to continue their trip, or to return home.

Odds of all tracks getting back on schedule today?  Pretty much zero.  In some cases, it might be Sunday before full-up operations are back. 

When you go and examine the whole German public transportation infrastructure....it's like a lego-system.   You could be told in Hamburg that going south is practically impossible, but if you got on a train heading east toward Rostock....that railway might be open, and then at Rostock, you could catch a southern-bound train to reach your final destination of Stuttgart.  But this whole re-routed trip?  You'd be talking about an extra 24-hours of travel, with hundreds of people crammed upon a train and trying to make the same patched-up deal work.  Or you just go and find some cheap hotel for two days to hang out and sip German beer while waiting for the maintenance folks to put things back into order.