From BZ/dpa
The winter storm “Juliette” swept across the holiday island of Mallorca with snow and lots of rain. Now the clean-up work begins. The authorities have asked for help from the mainland.
Mallorca has requested the help of the military emergency aid unit UME to deal with the consequences of the winter storm “Juliette”. Although the storm went east towards Italy on Wednesday, emergency services were sometimes only able to reach people who were snowed in at higher altitudes after hours. It had already started snowing on Monday and the white splendor was piling up at altitudes of over 800 meters, up to 1.4 meters in places. There were also stormy winds and high waves on the coasts.
In the Tramuntana mountains on Mallorca, snowfall left the landscape white and blocked roads, Photo: picture alliance / Eibner-Pressefoto | August
What initially triggered enthusiasm and drove hundreds of onlookers into the mountains gradually developed into a nightmare. Almost 100 day-trippers were snowed in at the Lluc monastery without cell phone reception and electricity. After all, the place of pilgrimage has enough places to sleep and food. On Tuesday evening, mountain rescue reached the monastery in the north of the island. Most of the snowed-in people spent the night there.
Family swept away by masses of water in car
The situation was more dangerous for a family with two small children who wanted to spend the night in a mobile home on a mountain pass. A pine tree fell on her vehicle at night, as reported by the German-language media “Mallorca Magazin” and “Mallorca Zeitung”. Rescuers could only reach the family, who was already suffering from hypothermia, on foot. The family initially took in another mobile home nearby, which had a heater, until they could be taken to safety the following day.
In Palma, a father and his two children were rescued from a car that had been swept away by masses of water. The man had tried to cross a normally dry river bed, as the newspaper “Última Hora” reported.
Sometimes it snowed in the lowlands and even on some beaches. But the snow didn’t stay long in the bathing bays. Palma was largely spared from the white splendor, but the asphalt surface of several streets collapsed due to undermining.
It wasn’t just the snow that bothered people. The strong storm caused damage, especially in the east of the island, as reported by the newspaper “Diario de Mallorca”. Roofs were torn off and trees fell, heavy rain caused flooding. In Pollença, a picturesque village in the north, 171 liters of water per square meter fell within 24 hours. Normally small watercourses became torrents and submerged the shore areas. Cellars and underground garages were also full.
Snow in the Serra de Tramuntana mountains in Mallorca Photo: Reuters
It was also unusually cold in other parts of Spain, with night frosts down to minus ten degrees in the Pyrenees. In the northwest of the country, according to the national weather service Aemet, snow was still to be expected in some higher-lying regions, which turned into rain at lower altitudes. Where the sun was shining, however, it was already pleasantly warm during the day – for example with 18 degrees in Málaga in the very south of the country.