Wingman I don't think its hindsight if we learn from today to anticipate tomorrow using all the scientific and technological means at our disposal for climate forecasting. Granted there are far more droughts than floods in the vega baja but the floods cause much more damage. I see from today's paper that the blame game has begun and the Mayors of the many towns affected are blaming the CHS - Confederation Hidrografica del Segura - A bit rich really in my opinion as the Mayors are the ones who gave the green light by way of permission for all the building construction in areas which should never have been built on. It appears the water couldn't get to the sea at Guardamar due to some blockage or other. It doesn't say what blocked it.
Bee
https://www.diarioinformacion.com/alica ... 87199.html
also some sad images of householders in this link
https://www.diarioinformacion.com/alica ... 87176.html
The Gota Fria in Alicante: The huerta loses 167 million and Segura collapses in Guardamar
The mayors of La Vega blame the CHS for the disaster at a meeting to look for solutions - The river has 4 breaks that will take 48 hours to repair and they propose to expand the drain to the sea for fear that the water will bounce and flood more of Guardamar
An article of d. pamies rubén miguez
The Segura River has once again claimed what is its own . And this time it has taken its time. Six days after the first torrential rains and despite the significant decrease in flow, water still extended yesterday through the orchards - causing 167 million in losses in agriculture - facilities and infrastructure before its mouth between San Fulgencio and Guardamar that did not work as it should
Even the stretch of the National 332 between both populations was affected by the overflow of the secular irrigation network, although the Civil Guard decided not to cut traffic, which continued slow while the water occupied the road. The only option not to leave half of the region incommunicado at the cost of generating miles of retention. Yesterday 20 roads in the region were closed to traffic
The Military Emergency Unit (UME) and the Hydrographic Confederation finally managed to contain and plug the two breached sections of the river between Algorfa and Almoradí. In the afternoon, in a tense meeting of administration officials (Generalitat and Consell) with the mayors it was learned that there are still four breaches left which it will take two days to repair. This meeting was called for an update from the Commissioner of Waters of the CHS, who according to councillors arrived an hour late to the meeting, for which he received the reproach of the consellera Gabriela Bravo and the consellera Mireia Mollà, said that the danger is not over. One of the most critical councillors in the meeting was the ouncillor of Guardamar, José Luis Sáez, who has seen since Sunday how the water level rose in the huerta without the water going to the sea. Apparently, the problem lies in the obstacles it encounters, something that the latter blamed on the CHS , openly and to all attendees. For this reason it was proposed to create a third way, between the two current ones (old and new channel) to try to alleviate the water flow. Yesterday there was fear of a rebound effect; that is to say, that the water and the mud that it drags will find less problem in returning to the huerta rather than in going out to the sea. Sáez, in statements to the newspaper, reproached the neglect of the CHS and blamed the basin agency, as other councillors did, for much of what is happening.
The nervousness among the mayors is obvious because their neighbours are also asking them to find solutions to their lives that continue with water up to their ankles four days after declaring the gota fria while no one dares to say the word everyone expects: there will be help . And everyone knows that one of the engines of the economy of the region, agriculture is very affected. The damages have been valued at 200 million euros in the Region, according to the Unió de Llauradors. Of them 167 in 25,000 hectares of the traditional orchard and by irrigation from the water transfer. The life of this region stopped last Thursday. Everyday gestures such as opening the tap or showering are still impossible. The supply of drinking water is interrupted in many populations.
The water spreads the feeling that this new flood has affected as usual the peripheral slums of some of the municipalities in the region. The humblest. Where they had to leave everything, with the water up to their waist so as not to lose their life as well. Also, and almost as a warning, in the new urban developments approved with all the fanfair during the time of the boom. Benfis Park in Benferri, razed by the monstrous avenue of the Rambla de Abanilla (a small little dry tributary of the Segura) that has caused the same damage as the Segura itself. The new urbanizations of Almoradí, which have expanded their urban center at the expense of the terraces. Or Montepinar, on the northern slope of the Orihuela mountain range, where the millions invested to redevelop and legalize homes have now been uprooted and buried in mud. The same sequence is repeated in hundreds of houses outside the garden where security forces had to rescue or evacuate thousands of people - around 300 are still relocated in makeshift shelters.
Normality will take weeks to recover. Infrastructure damage is in billions and one person is still missing (his body has since been recovered) . Until the river returns to claims its deeds again.
- By Yellowbird
