This Wednesday and during the early hours of Thursday, Málaga avoided the catastrophe that devastated Valencia two weeks ago. After the DANA, the balance, still provisional, allows us to make a not too unfavorable account of an episode that has unleashed unprecedented downpours in the province. Antonio Sanz, counselor of the Presidency (in charge of emergency coordination) said it at the edge of eight in the afternoon on Wednesday: “The balance is that there has not been any incident of serious consequence either for the health or for the life of the people.”
At that time, the second impact on the city and the province was still feared. The nighttime storm was expected over some channels that had touched their limits throughout the day, in particular the Guadalhorce and Campanillas rivers (a tributary of the former), the latter as it passed through the capital. The situation had led to the eviction of 3,000 residents. In Benamargosa, in Axarquía (east of the province), the river of the same name had overflowed after almost doubling its historical maximum level. Hence, Sanz and President Juan Manuel Moreno himself called to remain alert while waiting for what would happen at dawn. “There are still big problems and complexities to be faced,” he said.
An early morning of intense rain, but not torrential
The truth is that the night passed with intense rain, but not torrential. During the early hours of the morning, thunder was heard in the capital and the water fell heavily. But it cleared up. The precipitation summary of the Hidrosur Network reflects how the night episode was far from what was experienced in the central hours of the day. At night, the highest accumulation was recorded by Ojén, touching 60 liters per square meter in 12 hours.
During the day, 100 liters per square meter were exceeded from east to west of the province, with the capital exceeding 80 and maximums of 144 in Alfarnatejo (upper Axarquía, east of the province) or 119 in Coín (Guadalhorce valley , center). 950 residents of Almayate (a district of Vélez-Málaga, in Axarquía) were evacuated due to the risk of the Vélez River overflowing at its mouth. About 300 were transferred to a sports hall in Torre del Mar.
The AEMET red notice, initially scheduled until 8:00 this Thursday, ended an hour earlier than expected. The balance for the morning is 244 incidents throughout Andalusia, 170 of them in Malaga. Flooding, rescues on roads and homes and incidents of traffic due to pools of water or obstacles have been the most attended to and another 22 people were rescued in Vélez-Málaga.
The situation at the Malaga Airport, where more than 3,000 people were grounded yesterday (15 flights were canceled and five were diverted) had normalized, according to the morning report of the Junta de Andalucía. However, rail traffic on AVE and medium-distance lines will continue to be suspended during the first hours of Thursday, pending its restoration throughout the day. The Málaga Metro, canceled at midday on Wednesday, resumed normal service at 7:15 a.m. As for roads, the A-7054 has been reopened between kilometers 0 and 1, the A-7001 at kilometer 1, both in Malaga, in addition to the A-7205 at kilometer point 8,300 in Arenas and the MA-3108 in kilometer 1 as it passes through Benamargosa. The A-A-7207 at 9,600 between Cómpeta and Torrox and the A-7278 in Teba remain closed.
Wednesday’s balance
The feeling in Malaga in the middle of the afternoon, having overcome the trance of the central hours of the day, was one of a certain relief, with one’s breath held in anticipation of the early morning forecasts. The DANA transformed some streets in the Center into streams, flooding premises that yesterday afternoon were striving to return to normal, but nothing comparable to the widespread disaster in Valencia etched on the retina. Nor to the disastrous floods just 35 years ago (November 14, 1989) in the capital of Malaga, in which six people died.
The preventive evictions ordered by the Andalusian Government, the generalized notification to the population (Es-Alert sounded 12 hours in advance on 1,300,000 mobile phones), the cancellation of classes at all educational levels and, in general, awareness of the population in the face of the recent Levante episode helped the episode not to reach the category of disaster. At times it was feared that dozens of horses trapped in the flooded stables of the Equestrian Club would drown, but that was also resolved. 41 horses and 39 dogs were rescued there by the Local Police.
In the morning the streets appeared almost deserted. The feeling was one of tense waiting, resolved after 11 o’clock with the expected storm, five hours of downpour with small respites, enough to flood streets and make people fear the worst. But in the middle of the afternoon, the people of Malaga felt their clothes and the Guadalmedina River was flowing with a good flow, a rarity that locals and strangers contemplated with amazement. The sky opened and walkers stopped on the bridges to immortalize that the riverbed was no longer dry. The center was recovering its tourist flow, not a minute of the trip to lose, even though everything was bogged down.
At that time, Carretería was a muddy mess. It is ground zero of the havoc this Wednesday in the Center, and also of mass tourism in Malaga. Just a short time before, a tremendous flood of mud had come down Postigo de Arance Street until it ended in just a few dozen meters at the confluence with Carretería. Here there are brunch places, tourist apartments, lockers franchises and laundries. “It has reached one meter, and suddenly. Luckily we were able to get out,” said Luigi in Caramelli Salato, while barely removing the mud.
Marcos Sneydr barely had time to lower the blinds of his premises when he found himself in arm-deep water. In minutes it reached just under a meter. As soon as they saw how quickly it was rising, they went home. A large flowerpot carried by the current and a 25-liter beer barrel stowed in a corner show the waves. They had customers, and they rushed them out. “It is a shame that Carretería is like this. They just did it and it should have drains. I understand that the rain has been tremendous, but… a river was flowing down there,” explains Ana López, the owner, pointing to Postigo de Arance, while her son Marcos bails out the mud that has entered.
A broken pipe also had a lot to do with it, which a crew of workers quickly accounted for. “He blew it up. Keep in mind that a canal passes through there,” explains one of them, showing the stretch of cobblestones that the power of the flow has lifted from the ground. “Little has happened,” they conclude.
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