Storms End Camping Holidays

On Tuesday heavy storms blew away tents and made trees fall at the camping site De IJzeren Man in Weert and the nearby natural campsite Wega. The storm created widespread panic among the visitors. No one was injured.

In no time campsite Wega was flooded on Tuesday due to severe thunderstorms with hail. Tents blew away, others were flooded. Most of the 150 campers decided to discontinue their holidays prematurely. “In a wet sleeping bag you can not sleep,” said one of them.

Trees in the surrounding forests snapped like straws and fell on the sandy entrance to the campsite, which was for a while unreachable for the outside world. The fire department cleared the road later on Tuesday evening.

François Bakker from Woerden had diner in a restaurant in Weert with his partner, when the storm broke loose. “When we cycled back, we couldn’t reach the camping site. The road was blocked by big trees,” he said.

From the other side of the fallen trees, campers watched the operations of the fire department. Many wanted to get away and were packing their stuff. “I arrived here yesterday, but everything is wet, tents, sleeping bags, clothes,” said Corine van Grinsven from Nijmegen. "Fortunately, our children are not shocked. They find water and fire fantastic.” She closely followed the operations of the fire department. “We want to go home. We would have stayed here until Saturday, but that is now not possible anymore.”

Heavy rains

Large parts of North and Central Limburg were on Tuesday hit by severe thunderstorms. The storms caused a lot of storm damage such as fallen trees. In Weert, many basements  and streets were flooded. On the A73 near Venray, the traffic had to slow down to walking pace due to the heavy rain.

The storm lasted about an hour. Many residents tried to call simultaneously the emergency number 112 and due to the many callers the number was very difficult to reach.

In some places in Noord Brabant and Limburg about 50 millimeters of rain fell in a few hours time. This was reported by Weeronline.nl. Normally such an amount of rain will fall in a month. Also places in Gelderland and Overijssel were hit by tormenting rains.