THE STORM PLAYS HAVOC WITH SEA CROSSINGS

SEVERE weather conditions caused havoc with maritime services in the Balearics yesterday with ten crossings suspended.
The heavy seas and gale force winds forced two ferries bound for Ibiza from Palma to remain in port and the crossing from the capital to Sete in France was also sitting out the bad weather in port. Sea connections from Ibiza, Valencia and Barcelona were also suspended and the outlook is not good.
While it appeared yesterday morning that the Balearics has managed to avoid being hit by the eye of the storms which were battering parts of Spain, last night some parts of Majorca were hit by torrential rain again and today, the heavy rain and gale force winds will hit most parts of the region. The Civil Protection department in Madrid yesterday ordered the Balearics, Aragon, Cataluña and Castilla-La Mancha to remain on storm alert.
The worst of the weather will hit Minorca with the Civil Protection department warning of gale force winds reaching over 80 kilometres per hour and heavy rains of around 30 litres per square metre, per hour. The intensity of the rain will be pretty much the same in Majorca although the sierra, between Bunyola and Soller, is on full flood alert with 60 litres of rain per square metre forecast to fall in just 12 hours. Ibiza and Formentera can also expect a very wet day with the rain forecast to linger about the region for the next few days although the rain will not be as intense. The fierce weather this week has already caused widespread problems and claimed the life of at least one person in the Balearics. The storms which started the week off left thousands of people in Majorca, Ibiza and Formentera without power. A young driver was killed in a traffic accident along the Palma to Inca motorway, a house collapsed in Bunyola and the roof of a Palma supermarket caved in injuring three people. Scores of businesses and properties were flooded, especially in Arenal and Palma, while roads were left water logged and closed with a number of drivers trapped in their vehicles. Some businesses have already started assessing the damage for insurance claims while others are going to wait until Monday in case of any further flooding this weekend.