BATTERED BALEARICS

PALMA
MAJORCA was in fact hit by a sequence of three storms yesterday, the second being the most violent and deadly.
Two of the fierce electrical storms started forming off the coast of Ibiza on Tuesday night and, before moving in our direction, dumped a record 107 litres per square metre of rain on southern Ibiza causing widespread damage in the early hours of yesterday morning.

As they moved towards Majorca, they gathered even more force and at about 8am slammed into south west Majorca with Palma and its surrounding sleeper towns and villages caught in the eye of the storm.

The first storm dumped 48.5 litres per square metre of rain in Porto Pi - the equivalent of ten per cent of the annual rainfall for Porto Pi fell in just two hours.

The second storm was not far behind and brought 65.2 litres per square metre of torrential rain to Valldemossa and Bunyola.
The third storm hit Ses Salines and caused serious flooding to Campos, Felanitx, Sineu and Santa Margalida, dumping 64.5 litres per square metre of rain, before heading north.

The storms were also electric and, throughout the duration of the storms in Majorca, 1.500 bolts of lightning struck the island, 1'000 hit Ibiza.
The met. office reported receiving a host of calls from members of the public reporting tornadoes in the B ay of Palma - and they were not wrong.
At least three were confirmed to have been prowling out at sea off the west coast but, despite warnings during the morning that they were due to crash ashore off El Toro and Calvia, fortunately they remained offshore.

These tornadoes appeared by surprise, they had not been picked up on the met. office radars in Barcelona and Valencia and it will not be until the end of this year when Majorca has its own radar installed, that the Balearic met office will be able to spot and track such weather phenomena which can cause serious damage.

Majorca's radar will give the local met office a two hour cushion to alert the Balearic emergency services to any dangerous weather fronts.
The sight of the tornadoes and the torrential rain certainly made everybody nervous yesterday.
The emergency centre issued warnings and updates every half an hour - the most serious came just after the storm turned its back on Palma and set about heading north.

Stay at home and do not drive were the two simple warnings.
Fortunately, at the time of going to press last night, the situation in Palma appeared calm, at times one could even see the moon.
But, do not be lulled into a false sense of security. We are on storm alert until midday today with more torrential rain forecast this morning.
Schools will remain on alert. Yesterday a school in Palma was evacuated as were houses in the neighbourhood of Establiments for fears of serious flooding. In Esporlas some children had to be plucked to safety by helicopter as the flood waster rose around the school.

Frustrations were running high on the Can Valero industrial estate devastated by the October 4 hurricane.
Scores of businesses are still trying to clear away and repair the damage so that they can return to work.
Yesterday's storms were another setback and with Palma water board EMAYA having already deployed teams to help the Can Valero clean up, a new unit was assembled to clean up Palma. Manholes across the capital struggled the maintain the pressure from the sewage system while in Can Pastilla scores of business were flooded. The metro, closed indefinitely for flooding, was flooded and leaks sprung inside the city's new multi-million euro grand central station. A flight between Palma and Ibiza was cancelled and a few minor delays were reported on in and out-bound flights. All of Palma's local police remained on duty last night in case of further torrential rains early this morning and the fire services are also on stand by.

Over the past two weeks, Palma has been hit by a hurricane storm which took out one industrial estate, a paint and varnish warehouse goes up in flames on the Son Castle estate and then fresh storms return to flood the island. What next?