A fuller picture is emerging of the effects of yesterday’s stormy weather that hit many parts of the Canary Islands.
As reported here, the government ordered hundreds of thousands of children and university students to stay at home as a precaution in anticipation of the gale-force winds and heavy rain brought by Storm Nuria. Businesses were also urged to allow employees to work from home to reduce road traffic and the use of public transport.
The conditions brought chaos to inter-island flights, with La Palma airport particularly badly hit for most of the day due to winds in excess of 100 km per hour and poor visibility. The bulk of flights had to be cancelled and one flight already on its way to the island from northern Europe was diverted to Fuerteventura.
Emergency services in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz had to deal with dozens of call-outs throughout the day, including uprooted trees, fallen branches and traffic lights and road signs blown over by the winds. Police also had to move tourists from several exposed viewpoints in the Anaga hills outside the capital due to the risk of a serious incident, and Las Teresitas beach was closed as conditions worsened.
In Puerto de la Cruz, an elderly tourist was injured when he was hit by flying sheeting torn off by the gusts. The highest wind speed recorded in Tenerife was a staggering 178 km per hour high up on Mt Teide. Although the north of the island was expected to be worst hit, several parts of south Tenerife also suffered the impact of Storm Nuria, with upper parts of Granadilla bearing the brunt of the downpours which left a massive 88 litres per square metre in Cruz de Tea.
One of the most worrying incidents occurred in Gran Canaria, where an electricity pylon was broken in two by the wind near Gáldar, causing a high-voltage cable to fall to the ground on greenhouses at a banana farm and triggering fears of a fire. Elsewhere on Gran Canaria, the high winds caused damage to a house in El Matorral and blew a streetlamp over and onto a parked car in San Fernando.
The emergency services in the Canaries dealt with approximately 300 incidents caused by the Atlantic storm and the task of clearing fallen trees and branches, blown-over walls, rockfalls on roads and urban furniture damaged by the strong winds began as soon as Nuria’s tail end departed from the islands late in the evening. Government sources say decisions such as the closure of schools, beaches and other coastal parts, as well as cordoning off town and city squares, contributed significantly to minimising the risk to life posed by the storm.
Photo: Cabildo de Gran Canaria
