03/09/2003 00:00
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Staff Reporter A fierce storm which produced 62 litres of rainfall per square metre in less than an hour, caused flooding in ground floor and basement homes in the central village of Costitx and its surrounding areas early yesterday. Various cars were damaged and windows smashed by falling hailstones which in some cases were as large as golf balls. According to sources at Costitx town council, the storm began about 6am and caused flooding of no serious consequence. It did, however, bring down a couple of trees and damage some vehicles parked out on the street. The director of the Meteorological Centre of the Balearics, Agustín Jansá, explained that the storm in the Islands was accompanied by plenty of electrical activity, with some 2'000 lightning flashes. Apart from Costitx, strong rainfall was also registered in Alaró which recorded 40 litres per square metre. Lesser quantities fell in Villafranca, Santa Margarita and Inca, with a little more than 20 litres per square metre. Sources at Majorca's fire stations reported that it had only been necessary to intervene with pumping water at an electricity distribution centre belonging to the power company, Gesa. They also assisted in the removal of some trees that had fallen onto the pavement during the storm.


POWER CUTS
Meanwhile, some 9'000 clients of the company Gesa-Endesa, the vast majority of them on Majorca, suffered cuts in their power supply early yesterday morning due to failures on some electricity lines caused by the storm. A GESA company spokesman confirmed that at 10.30am that morning, some 100 clients on Minorca and 500 living in the area of the Eastern coast town of Porto Cristo on Majorca, remained without electricity. The strong rains registered in the early hours of the morning at different points around Majorca caused a failure on the end section of the Alfabia line, between Sóller and the mountain where television receivers are installed. Likewise, the Son Carrió and Binissalem lines were affected, causing a cut in the electricity supply to some 700 clients which was recovered later in the morning. The longest blackout was triggered at 6.45am affecting the areas of Portocristo and s´Illot, whose supply line was affected by flooding in an electricity distribution centre. Majorcan firemen were at the scene at about 10.30am pumping water away from the installation so that Gesa technicians could repair the damage and get the power supply back on line to their clients.