Date Published: 22/01/2020
ARCHIVED - The clean-up begins again after more flooding in Los Alcázares and other Mar Menor towns
ARCHIVED ARTICLE Work to clear the streets of Los Alcázares after the December flood was scheduled to finish this week
The heavy rain and snow brought by Storm Gloria to Murcia on Monday and Tuesday may have moved away from the Region, and the sun may be shining brightly on Wednesday morning in many parts of the Region after a foggy start to the day in and around the regional capital, but it will be hard for many residents of Los Alcázares and other towns on the shore of the Mar Menor to enjoy the return of more stable weather to the area.
For the third time in just over four months the streets in Los Alcázares were flooded on Tuesday, and even now that the water is receding a thick coating of mud once again covers road surfaces and the floors of many basements and ground floor premises.
Around 60 millimetres of rain were recorded in many parts of central and eastern Murcia in just four hours on Tuesday morning but again, as was the case in the flooding of early December, it was not until after the rain had all but died out that the accumulation of water in the Campo de Cartagena made its way down “rambla” floodwater channels towards the Mar Menor – in the case of the Rambla de la Marrana, via the centre of Los Alcázares.
The 112 emergency services call centre reports having dealt with 1,025 incidents related to heavy rain and snow since Sunday and on Tuesday as many as 114 of them were in the municipality of Los Alcázares as the floodwater began to rise again, a scene which is now distressingly familiar to residents. Another 66 calls were received from each of the municipalities of San Javier and Cartagena, indicating that yet again it was those living in the Mar Menor area who suffered the worst flooding, but in a scenario horribly reminiscent of those experienced in the gota fría storms of September and December 2019 it was Los Alcázares which bore the brunt of the rush of runoff water towards the lagoon.
Unsurprisingly, the residents of the town are at their wits’ end. Summing up their feelings, Mayor Mario Pérez Cervera stated during the afternoon that the town is “tired of the administrations wishing us the best of luck while they offer no solutions”, and expressed the view that what is happening in Los Alcázares is not that ramblas are bursting their banks, but that the ramblas no longer have a natural course to follow.
Since the disastrous flood of December 2016 the residents have suffered five episodes of torrential rain and flooding, Sr Pérez Cervera points out, and the anxiety among the locals is palpable every time it starts to rain.
As of Tuesday evening 43 streets in Los Alcázares were closed to traffic by flooding and around 100 people were engaged in the tasks of pumping out floodwater and re-opening the roads. As usual, one of the worst affected areas was around the municipal sports complex, although it is too early as yet to estimate the cost of repairing the damage caused and cleaning up the town. Ironically, it was only this week that the clean-up following the December flooding was scheduled to be completed.
Join the Murcia Weather Watch group on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest forecasts and weather-related stories: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RegionOfMurciaWeatherWatch/.