Emergency services work to recover normality after the more than 200 incidents of the storm in the Balearic Islands

PalmaThe Directorate General for Emergencies and Interior is working on the recovery of normality in the Balearic Islands after the more than 200 incidents recorded in the last few hours, caused by the rainfall, storms, and strong wind that affected the Islands during this Wednesday. Of the four islands, Mallorca has been the most affected and is now in a normalization phase, a phase recognized by the Meteobal Plan that consists, basically, of recovering normality, that is to say, restoring all necessary basic services.

The area most affected and which is in full recovery phase is Port del Canonge, in Banyalbufar. The General Directorate of Emergencies and Interior has installed an Advanced Command Post (PMA) there to coordinate tasks with the participating organizations, mainly Ibanat, Mallorca Fire Department, Mallorca Council Roads, the different services of the Banyalbufar City Council and Endesa.

The area is affected by the fall of pine trees which, consequently, has also affected the electricity network, with punctual effects or supply cuts in some houses in the area. To be able to work with the maximum efficiency possible, the road that gives access to Port del Canonge has been closed.

The fall of trees affected the electrical supply network in different areas of the island of Mallorca and also in Menorca, and initially left more than 17,000 subscribers without supply (early in the afternoon the day before yesterday).

Work has been carried out, in coordination with Endesa, on the recovery of eight medium-voltage lines, and, provisionally, different generator sets have been installed to cover part of this supply. These medium-voltage lines affect 860 users in the northern area of the island and 327 in the eastern area. In addition, across the island there are also 285 users affected by breakdowns in low-voltage lines.

From the 112 Emergency Coordination Center, 210 incidents have been registered and managed across all the islands. (11 in Menorca, 4 in Ibiza and 9 of unregistered location). Most of these incidents are considered closed. Only 17 remain open (as of 12:00 PM).

Regarding the tornado that has severely affected the pine forests of Banyalbufar, the Forest Network has highlighted that this area was already severely affected on August 29, 2020, by a tornado that affected more than 890 hectares in the municipalities of Banyalbufar, Esporles, and Valldemossa.

In a social media post, they also highlight the storm of the year 2001, which affected more than 12,000 hectares of forest on the island of Mallorca and resulted in more than 1 million fallen trees.

Furthermore, they recall that in Menorca, in 2018, a tornado crossed the island from south to north and affected more than 1,700 hectares of forest and agricultural land. In this case, the material damage caused by power outages generated numerous economic losses for businesses.

As the Network highlights, it seems that these meteorological events "are becoming more frequent and intense, which is why we must be prepared for them"