The city falls back to medieval conditions. Soon it appears that the power never returns via the electricity grid. While the repair work starts on Monday, the electricity is completely switched off after a flash of light.The KNMI completely missed the storm but on Monday the commuters leave the city again with some delay by train and car to their work, as far as they were not on holiday. On the Monday the damage seems to be relatively low. Violent hail and incessant thunderstorms with gusts of up to 250 km per hour. On the Sunday of Renate's arrival there is an apocalyptic summer storm on the city.In Maastricht she bid farewell to her loved ones, since she'd retreat to a place where nobody wanted to be found dead. Further on, her task gets renamed as town clerk, which was more fitting given the medieval circumstances Almere fell into.

The writer cast herself as part of the book, writing about being invited by the municipality to write about the city. Renate suffered from a writer's block in the era she was invited to become writer-in-residence but accepted the challenge nonetheless and used her protagonist as a storyteller of an imagined disaster threatening Almere.

This was part of the effort to strengthen the cultural image of Almere. She was invited by the municipality of Almere to become writer-in-residence and write about the city. Weerwater is a dystopian novel written by Renate Dorrestein.

Weerwater by Renate Dorrestein