The cold drop

It rains in September in Majorca. In fact it always does and there is even a local name for the freak weather, "Gota Fria" or the Cold Drop. There have been freak storms in September for as long as I can remember. So the question has to be asked; why isn’t the island better prepared? The drainage system in some areas is certainly at fault and many of the island torrents have not been cleared for many years. The mixture of a poor drainage system and over-grown and dirty torrents leads to all the problems which we saw last week. Flooding, beaches being closed and of course damage. Every year the local authorities promise to do something about the torrents but nothing is done. Every year we have heavy rains and the island as usual appears to be ill-prepared. There were many nightmare stories following the rains last week: houses which were flooded, even a bus! So while Majorca may be the island of sun it should be at least be prepared to deal with the rain. Insurance companies are looking at a major pay-out with damage to public property in the millions of euros. The local authorities with the support of the emergency services need to draw up a major flood prevention plan. I know it sounds amazing when most of the year we have beautiful sunshine but it is best to be prepared. The “Gota Fria” usually marks the end of the long hot summer. While there will still be warm weather on the horizon we have probably seen the end of the exceptionally high temperatures.