A YEAR IN ANDALUCIA 5 YEARS ON!: THE GREAT STORM

The volume of water cascading through Ronda's famous Tajo Gorge.....

The weight of water created a mist in Ronda's town centre, similar to that of Niagra Falls!!!

As Jim from the Vicar of Dibley series once said ‘Do you remember the great winds of 1964’ Well we will certainly won’t forget the great Ronda storm of December 2009, the worst on record since 1947!

Around 100 litres of rain fell on the Serranía on Christmas Eve causing the mayor of Ronda, Antonio Marín, to invoke the municipal emergency plan to assist local residents.

The four major rivers in the area – the Guadiaro, Genal, Guadalevin and Guadalcobacín – all burst their banks and hundreds of homes were flooded. Local farmers who had been concerned about the effects of the drought on their crops now found their land underwater and drowned livestock floating in their fields.
Mudslides covered and washed away a large number of roads and on New Year’s Day a total of 18 roads in the region still remained closed and will be for the forseeable future. Some of the worst flooding was in Jerez where the Guadalete river burst its banks and the water authority confirmed that the river was at its highest level for “over 100 years”

In the early hours of Christmas Eve we were also hit by a mini tornado, which caused considerable damage to many of our neighbours with the loss of many mature trees and fences. We were fortunate that we were not in its direct path and although many items, including our wooden sun beds, were swept away, one landing in the swimming pool, the only real damage we suffered was the loss of a dozen or so roof tiles. Thank goodness this all happened in the early hours of the morning, as the next day we discovered large pieces of broken roof tiles half way up our drive, some 30 metres from the house.

Our dislodged roof tiles

The highest rainfall fell in Grazalema, which has the reputation of being the wettest town in Spain, where they saw over 700 litres per metre cubed fall in just four days, which is 60 per cent higher than the average for this time of year. Poor things! The Junta has confirmed it is now studying an action plan to pay for the damages to the region and the authorities of Malaga, Cadiz and Granada have appealed to central government for financial aid.