Dutch grower Van der Wilt Gerbera imagined the upcoming holidays a bit differently. Last Friday, his greenhouse was hit by a whirlwind, which destroyed around a third of it.
The damage clearly shows the force of the whirlwind. The entire construction was torn apart in several spots, and glass was found 100-150 meters away from the greenhouse.
Dutch regional broadcaster 0297.nl paid a visit and made this short videoreport.
Grower Joris van der Wilt is going through an emotional rollercoaster. "The one moment, you think 'put your back into it', and the next, it is all messed up again."
Yesterday, they started collecting the glass and hopefully, they can start the repair work soon. Whether the crop can be salvaged remains to be seen; for now, the heating is on, but temperatures will not be much higher than outside. Usually, inside the greenhouse the temperature is 18 degrees Celsius, but now it's 10 degrees Celsius.
The only upside to the story was that there was no one in the greenhouse at the time. When the whirlwind hit, workers had just finalized harvesting, so nobody got hurt.