Wash out

Civil Defence was on full alert last night after the Palma Met office forecast more heavy rain for today. The only good news on the weather front is that it appears that tomorrow, Sunday, will remain dry but still cloudy. More than one hundred litres of rain per square metre fell in the space of an hour in Puerto Pollensa overnight causing much damage. Part of the beach at Cala San Vicente was literally washed away. See Adjoining article. In Palma the lunch-time rainfall caused major disruption and there were long tailbacks at some of the busy intersections. A Civil Defence spokesman said that the Balearics and Cataluña would remain on weather standby as another cold front has moved in from France. The bad weather has caused plenty of damage in Majorca this year and ruined the holiday plans of thousands of tourists. The local government is in the process of paying compensation to all those who had property damaged in the last heavy rains in August. Last month has already gone down as one of the wettest on record, it appears that September is going to follow suit. Heavy rains are not unusual at this time of the year, infact they are expected. In Majorcan they are known as the “Cold Drop” which usually hits the island between September and November. However, this year they appear to have come even earlier. On a more brighter front yesterday the Palma Water Board said that the recent heavy rains meant that they had enough water reserves until at least next summer. This statement will come as little comfort to the thousands of holidaymakers who were hoping for a break in the sun.