The clean up operation continues in Arenal

While it was business as usual for most parts of the island yesterday in the wake of Thursday night, Friday morning's storm, the clean up operation continued in Arenal. Shopkeepers said that millions of pesetas worth of goods had been damaged by the heavy rains and flooding and tourists were surprised to see the a murky brown sea lapping on to the beach. The Torrent del Jesus, the usually bone dry river bed which separates the municipalities of Palma and Llucmajor, became a raging torrent of water during the storms and carried tons of mud, silt and waste in to the sea. Heavy seas had also thrown mounds of seaweed up on to the beach and yesterday the bulldozers and council workers were maneouvering their way around sun bathers to remove the piles of weed. The council received complaints from residents throughout the day about the poor condition of the beach and the local authority's slow response to cleaning up the mess. There were also calls yesterday for the council to clean up the river bed which for years has become a dumping zone for household waste and other castoff objects which during the storm were all carried down in to the popular holiday resort and on to the beach by the fast flowing flood water. For the bulk of the holidaymakers though, it was a day like any other day and few were prepared to miss out on some quality sunbathing hours, despite the continual growl of the bulldozers ploughing up and down the beach and the murky brown water. The green warning flag flew over the beach all day as the clean up operation continued well in to the afternoon.