This morning, a scene we rarely see was unfolding in the centre of Skopje - a fire truck with its ladder extended, parked in front of the Museum of the City of Skopje, and firefighters up high, at the top, fixing something unusual for their profession: the clock on the facade. From the storm a few days ago, the hand that shows the minutes had been damaged, and city time had stopped.

There is something almost symbolic in that picture. The clock of the Museum of the City of Skopje is no ordinary clock - it is the building of the old railway station, whose clock is frozen at 5:17 in the morning, the moment the 1963 earthquake struck the city. What the storm broke was the working clock on the facade, not that historical monument - but the reminder that time and destruction go together in this building is hard to miss.

The clock, of course, was not the storm's only victim. The storm also damaged many buildings of vital importance - among them the „Vili Vodno” complex, the airport police base in Petrovec, the „Nova Makedonija” building, as well as the buildings of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Public Prosecutor's Office. The swimming pool at the „Boris Trajkovski” Sports Centre was also considerably damaged.

Seen up close, fixing a single clock looks like a trifle in a sea of consequences. But it is exactly such details that tell how a city copes with a crisis. When firefighters find the time, in the middle of clearing fallen trees and damaged roofs, to restore the hand of the city clock - that is a sign that someone cares about form too, not just substance. Skopje, a city that knows what it means for time to stop, this time at least got it back quickly.