ARCHIVED - Los Alcázares activates level 1 emergencies plan as streets are flooded once again

Los Alcázares is currently immersed in its third flooding crisis in four months, with the streets of the "Ground Zero" in the old quarter once again running running red with floodwaters as water pours off the surrounding agricultural countryside, down into the town and on into the Mar Menor.

La #BorrascaGloria castiga también a #LosAlcázares. El ayuntamiento se ve obligado a derribar los muros donde terminan las pluviales, que van a parar al #MarMenor. Informa @Soniaillan https://t.co/FJmeZmuSxD vía @ormurcia pic.twitter.com/lEUu1ABEzv

— Onda Regional (@ORMurcia) January 21, 2020

Residents are once again expressing their feelings of anger and impotence as homes and businesses are flooded, and in spite of the efforts of municipal and regional services to clear drains and facilitate the free flow of the waters, the situation is expected to worsen during the next couple of hours as water runs off from the rain-soaked surrounding countryside.

Los Alcázares lies at the foot of a gentle slope down from the surrounding campo de Cartagena and Torre Pacheco, a combination of natural waterways cut by the natural flow of water and man-made channels designed to prevent urban flooding, all flowing down through the town centre and surrounding countryside and urbanisations and on into the Mar Menor.

Although these are generally capable of coping with steady rain, they have proven inadequate during the recent episodes of torrential rain, overflowing into the town centre.

At the moment water is flooding into the Rambla de los Huertanos, the paseo is totally flooded and such is the volume of water that one of the walls on the paseo has been intentionally demolished to try and clear the way for the water to flow out of the main central streets of the town and into the Mar Menor.

Two people were evacuated by Protección Civíl and at the moment there are no plans to evacuate residents from their homes, indeed, the mayor has requested that residents remain inside the safety of their homes.

The town hall has temporarily closed its administrative offices in a measure to try and prevent residents from leaving their homes and going to the town hall to submit paperwork.

A team of journalists from the regional TV channel was also resuced by municipal services whilst capturing footage of the waters.

#BorrascaGloria El agua procedente de las ramblas empieza a inundar las calles de la 'zona cero' en #LosAlcázares. Informa @Soniaillan. Te lo contamos en nuestra programación y en https://t.co/VHV784oZnt pic.twitter.com/cMicmqxt42

— Onda Regional (@ORMurcia) January 21, 2020

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