That was not the gota fria

It rained yesterday, boy did it rain. The worst hit places were Alicante city, the surrounding area, Orihuela and Elda.

The cause, a cold storm coming from England meeting the warm air over the Mediterranean.

The two hour downpour caused chaos throughout Alicante province; roads were closed, garages were flooded, underpasses were impassable, electricity was cut and the trains stopped running. To give you some idea of how much rain fell; Agost registered sixty six litres per square metre in just one hour and even saw hail. Orihuela though was worst hit with a registered 72 litres of water per square metre and some sources even made that 90. I have at least two inches more water in my pool today thanks to the downpour.

The worst affected parts of Orihuela were the Plaza de Capuchinos, the Ociopía zone and the Avenida de la Vega. Commercial premises in the Avenida de la Vega and Calle Extremadura were badly flooded including two stationery shops, a pet shop and a cafeteria. The residents waited two hours before the emergency services arrived. In the meantime they improvised a pump to clear the roads and removed cars that had been immobilised by the water. Today they will be counting the cost as they clear the mud and damaged stock from their premises.

We had several small power cuts but should count ourselves lucky. Thousands experienced extensive blackouts in Alicante, Sant Joan, Benidorm, Elda and Torrevieja.

The further bad news is that the rain isn’t over yet. The area is on yellow alert for today and green for tomorrow. It is probably best to leave washing the sheets until at least Thursday.