Storm Gloria’s aftermath
Last week a heavy storm wreaked havoc in Spain. The storm, named Gloria, made headlines all over Europe. It seems the storm was strongest in the regions of Alicante, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. But also in our region we experienced 4 days of really bad weather. The longest since we moved here.
During these days it was rainy and only around 11 degrees Celsius, which is very cold for this region. This may still sound like an okay winter temperature for many other Europeans, but houses here aren’t built for that type of cold. They are built to lose the heat in summer! During the day our heating system couldn’t get the inside temperature above 18 degrees. In the early morning, when we woke up, the inside temperature dropped to only 12-13 degrees. Most houses here have very poor insulation. Or, in case your glass is half full, they are very well ventilated. So much so, that we don’t have to look outside when it gets a bit windy, because our curtains inside start moving!
The worst about Gloria was not the rain or the cold, but the waves and winds. Waves on the sea were up to 7 meters high! Because of this beaches and boulevard experienced a lot of damage and many coastal areas were flooded. On Monday, and also on Tuesday in some towns, schools were closed. Also many roads in low-lying areas and roads near the coast were closed. Electricity and internet broke in many places and in Peñíscola some people had to be evacuated from their homes. We also didn’t have electricity for about half an hour and we didn’t have internet for 6 days. Below you can find a short list with news articles from local newspapers, showing pictures and videos. The last link is in English:
A video of the flooding at restaurant Roca Mar in Peñíscola.
A video of waves eating away the dunes between Peñíscola and Benicarló & a video of the Bufador at Peñíscola, an opening to the sea at the old town.
Pictures of the waves hitting the port of Vinaròs and the state of the boulevard during and after the storm.
A video of the flooding at the southern part of the boulevard in Vinaròs.
Also the Ebro-delta, an important natural park, is heavily damaged. Big pieces of land have been lost to the sea and many fields with rice are damaged by the salty sea water.
Thursday I went to check on our land. During a storm last year the vegetable garden which I planted was washed away. And earlier this year, during 2 stormy days in August, our road was damaged. This time we didn’t have any damage to our land. So not much news on that front.
A bit further inland in Castellon the rains turned into snow. In Morella, a small medieval town on top of a mountain, they had about 70 centimeter of snow. Now that the skies turned blue again, that makes for some amazing pictures and drone footage.
Also the lake in the nature park Tinença de Benifassà, which barely had any water left, has been filled again. At the moment it’s filled for about 70%, which is more than the usual 40% for this time of the year. This also means that the rivers, which are normally dry, are flowing towards the sea again! I shot the video and pictures below Thursday, a day after the storm. It’s a pretty spot in a small protected forest area in Vinaròs, near the border of Càlig.
Currently many people are busy pumping away water, cleaning their homes, bars and restaurants and fixing the beaches and roads. Along the beach between Peñíscola and Benicarló that means that they have to scrape away about 30-40 centimeters of sand and rocks from the boulevard and bring it back to the beach. For us this means the road between Vinaròs and the complex we live at is still closed. And it probably will be for a few more days, because during the cleaning and reparations a tractor fell through the road. Apparently the waves ate away the foundation of the road and the road couldn’t support its weight anymore. Hopefully all the reparations will be finished soon so that life can go back to normal.
