TRAPPED

By Humphrey Carter WHILE the rest of the country basks in glorious sunshine, the Balearics remains on storm alert today with as much as 120 litres of rain forecast to fall on the Sierra de Tramuntana in a period of 12 hours. Torrential rain returned to parts of the island yesterday and in Sencelles, trapped a 30-year-old man in his car. He got caught by the heavy rain as he drove along the old Muro road by the river which burst its banks over night in the area and suddenly found his car surrounded by rapidly rising water. The alarm was raised at 7.45 am and Inca fire fighter rushed to the scene and managed to drag the vehicle away from the danger zone before rescuing the driver unhurt. This was the most serious of the over night incidents caused by what the Balearic met office described yesterday as “extremely heavy rain”. As the graphic illustrates, some parts of the island were hit by heavy rain during the 24 hours ending at 8am yesterday morning with most of the rain falling over night. The fire services reported a number of fallen trees, but as the heaviest rain fell in the mountains, no major flooding was reported. However, driving conditions in Alcudia and the Port of Pollensa were very dangerous on Thursday afternoon with some drivers turning back and postponing their journeys a day. Yesterday, the Guardia Civil traffic department repeated its warning to drivers to proceed with due care and attention today with further torrential rain and strong winds forecast. The good news however, is that the storms will start to die away as today develops and leave just a few showers for the end of this bank holiday weekend.