Hurricane updates for NRW, school closures etc.

Hi! Everyone I see in Duesseldorf today is telling me there will be a storm like never seen before in Germany -- a hurricane or something. I haven't found anything in English about it, but this is a link to the RP Online article on Orkan Kyrill. I <<think>> by "orkan" they mean hurricane? Does anyone know whether schools will be closing early today? The kindergarten didn't make that clear but that was the impression I got from this article.

DBBug reported in her thread here that schools were closing early in Munich. i just asked my colleague who has two kids in schools in Heidelberg and she has heard nothing.

i just called the Schulamt for Baden-Württemberg and they said the closure of the schools is left up to the principle of each school. there is no executive decision regarding this, like in Munich.

there weren't any posting in the B-W thread about this great storm, so I posted it here. here are the Schulamts if you want to call or call your school.

My daughter's school closed early today, a very sensible decision as it's at the top of a hill with a lot of trees around it.

So far it's a bit windy but nothing to get excited about.

and where are you?

a colleague whose kids are in school in Ludwigshafen (right on the west side of the Rhein, so in Rheinland Pfalz, but across from Mannheim which is in B.W.) has just been notified that his children have to go home. He just left to go pick them up.

All schools in Cologne closed early (after 4th lesson). Only found out when elder daughter turned up 2 hours early. The little uns (primary) have been trapped in the Betreuung because they won't let them go home by themselves.

I stopped by the kindergarten at 12:30 to nurse my youngest and her main caretaker said that they would stay open until 16:30 as usual. But a few minutes later the woman in charge of the kindergarten seemed a bit panicked and had her leave early because of a long commute. We (me and 2 daughters) are taking the bus home today. I am in no hurry to get home, and it is not even really raining hard. But should I be more worried?

all long distance trains in Germany have now been cancelled until further notice. Also all trains (including local and regional) in NRW have been cancelled.

I'm in Bonn.

Still quite calm here.

It is quite calm here in Essen at the moment too. There seems to be mostly rain with the odd burst of wind, then it gets quiet again. They keep saying that it will get worse in a couple of hours ... but they said that a few hours ago ... and a few hours before that.

Looks as though schools are planning to open tomorrow but if the weather is bad kids can stay home.

http://www.bildungsportal.nrw.de/BP/Aktuel...nung/index.html