The danger of living on a cliff

CitadelRamon Saura is 72 years old and has lived his entire life in La Cala, as the residents of Castell call the seven-meter-wide inlet between Fort Marlborough and Sant Felip Castle. Twenty meters from his house, below the cliff, a 20-ton rock broke loose two weeks ago, burying the Serra family home. It crashed through the two upper floors and literally buried the 66-year-old man, who was sleeping in the bedroom below. His 62-year-old wife escaped with her life by mere centimeters. Authorities immediately evacuated the families living in the eight surrounding buildings as a precaution; new construction would now be prohibited. Two weeks later, none of them, not even Ramon, have been able to return home.

In La Cala, a quiet place far removed from the summer tourist bustle, there are no restaurants or shops. There is also no proper sanitation or cell phone coverage. In fact, when the tragedy occurred, the Emergency Services had to install a TetraIB antenna to ensure communication between all the security forces involved.

In the following days, with everyone out of their homes, technicians from RiscBal used a drone to analyze the state of the cliff in detail. Although their conclusions are only preliminary for now, it seems the situation will be serious. Experts have detected that at least one other rock, even larger than the one that caused the landslide, is at risk of falling, right next to the one that will collapse the neighboring house. The study seems to indicate that it may not be the only one.

"I'll go back home, they can't stop me."

However, Ramon Saura says that as soon as they let him, he'll return home. "Cala is my life, and I take responsibility for what happens. They can't forbid me from going." Although in seven decades no one had ever warned him or his family of the potential danger they faced, now he doesn't see "a very big risk. I have had some warnings, with a small stone falling on the roof, but, unlike other neighbors, I don't have a cave behind me that could collapse." In any case, Ramon, who is also president of the residents' association, says that "the trauma of the tragic death is still too recent to provoke collective reflection. We have to be patient and wait for the institutions, with all their good intentions, to act." Meanwhile, he will continue living at his father's house or at the home of another relative, like the rest of those evicted. Only two of those affected, he adds, have had to request housing assistance from the City Council.

Mayor Lluís Camps, who closely monitored the initial interventions, wanted to be on the safe side and instructed the Local Police to also warn all residents of the nearby Fonduco area about the potential risk of landslides. Some residents have also taken the initiative and submitted requests to the City Council to take action and assess the condition of the cliff.

Solutions are already underway. The municipal government is in contact with architects, engineers, and geologists, as well as with higher levels of government, to ensure everyone's safety, while also working to clarify the ownership of the affected plots. They are even considering various temporary measures, including the preventive evacuation of homes that, apart from those already evacuated to Cala Sant Esteve, may be at risk. "Any decision in this regard will be made based on strictly technical criteria, with the utmost rigor, and with safety as the absolute priority," he stated.

The municipality has also reorganized the Citizen Services Department to better serve those affected and asks for "understanding, time, and prudence" in order to make "responsible decisions" without creating "unnecessary alarm." "This is," it warns, "a long-term problem that has no immediate or simple solutions."

Municipal emergencies

The Directorate General of Emergencies is comparing the Castell case to one that occurred a few days earlier in Esporles, involving the detachment of trees and large rocks, but which had no tragic consequences. Technicians attributed the landslides to the accumulation of moisture in the soil due to recent rainfall. However, the fact that this is not the first time landslides have occurred in the area, and that the incident is recurring, led RiscBal technicians to also conduct a terrain assessment using drones. The conclusion, as in the Castell case, is that some homes are at risk and, for this reason, were evacuated as a precaution. Following these precedents, the Emergency Services has urged all municipalities in the Balearic Islands to identify, review, and protect areas at potential risk of landslides or similar hazards, so that they can take the necessary preventative measures. In fact, the Directorate General insists that "each municipality is responsible for its own risks, and if they have a municipal emergency plan, it must be included." This is the case of Castell, which, after Ciutadella, was the second Menorcan municipality to commission one. But landslides are not among the municipality's main risks, according to its emergency plan, which considers storms at sea, forest fires, floods, marine pollution, and adverse temperatures to be more dangerous. The truth, however, is that the cliff that Castell shares with Maó, overlooking the harbor entrance, has already caused five close calls in just 15 months. However, all of them, except for the tragic fatal incident at Cala Sant Esteve, have only resulted in material damage. The most recent incident, also in the early hours of the morning, affected the Xoriguer factory in the port. Luckily, no one was working there at that time.