Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Heavy rains cause damages in north Tenerife

The island was, once again, placed under a situation of alert late on Sunday night and a great quantity of rain and snow fell in Tenerife, particularly on the north of the island, causing rockfalls that closed roads (including the TF-5 highway), flooding, electricity cuts, left schools and colleges without classes and, at least, a dozen people had to be rescued on Teide. In some areas of the north of Tenerife, 200 liters per square meter of rain fell and there were delays at Tenerife's Los Rodeos airport.

Access roads to the mountain and the National Park remain closed and the weather alert remains active, although schools have re-opened today, but you can see a pretty picture of Teide, all snow covered, here (along with pictures of flooding.)

Go here and you can see the view, via webcam, from the residence building at the Teide Observatory at 2,400 meters. You can't see a fat lot right now, because Teide is in cloud, but you can see a lot of snow around and about the area.

Diario de Avisos call it "a spectacular storm" and, they're not wrong. This house has 18 inch thick walls, but the thunder was so intense that we all felt the ground and houses shake locally at one point, as if there had been an earthquake.

Yet, despite the situation suffered in the north and capital of the island, the beaches on the south of Tenerife were still full of sunbathers throughout the weekend.

Las intensas lluvias dejan carreteras cortadas, inundaciones, desprendimientos y un rescate