Weather
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
The scenes of devastation from Benamargosa in the Axarquía area of Malaga following the 'Dana' storm that hit the province on Wednesday 13 November were reminiscent of those in Valencia just two weeks before. However, fortunately in this small village of just 1,600 inhabitants nobody was injured and there was no loss of human life.
The flood that caused the river to burst its banks on Wednesday afternoon seriously affected around fifty buildings including restaurants, shops, supermarkets, cafés, bakeries, the church and houses. Not even the oldest residents, including a hundred-year-old man, can remember such a flood.
José Gallego, who was mayor between 2007 and 2019 said, "Never in my life have I ever seen such flooding of the river. Other times the water entered this street, but neither houses nor businesses were flooded."
He believes that the flooding of the river had "something to do with the fact that the siphon of the Mazmúllar dam in the River Cueva must have been blocked", and went on to say, "It is not normal that with the amount of rain that fell it overflowed like this. Other times it has rained like this and it hasn't happened."
From early on Thursday morning, dozens of residents, assisted by members of the Civil Guard, Civil Protection, National Police, Firefighters from the Provincial Consortium and the Infoca Plan, worked to try to restore as much normality as possible to a large part of the village located next to the riverbed.
Bar El Río, located near the bridge,s was one of the worst affected. Pablo Díaz is the owner's brother-in-law and on Wednesday he was busy cleaning up the mud that reached a height of more than a metre. "Everything is destroyed, the storeroom area is unusable," he lamented, while highlighting "the great help of family and friends. The people saved the people".
Diaz added that "thanks to the misfortune that happened in Valencia, we were alerted, we had protocols and help from all the security forces, there are no victims to lament, only material damage".
A few metres away Pablo Hijano, owner of the Covirán supermarket, showed how the water reached almost half a metre in height. "Here we are removing mud and throwing away everything that is unusable, we have to be optimistic and hope that it doesn't go any further," he said.
Around him, in the Cuatro Vientos area, dozens of volunteers and professionals were busy cleaning up the rubbish. Cars and heavy machinery dragged by the current are still visible in the riverbed. The Cajamar and Unicaja banks were also badly damaged. In the former, the water reached almost two metres. At that time no one was working, as the head of Cajamar in Malaga, Sergio Durán, explained to SUR.
Current mayor, Salvador Arcas, has announced that they are going to ask that Benamargosa be declared a disaster area in order to obtain aid from all public administrations. The president of the provincial body, the Diputación de Málaga, Francisco Salado, who accompanied the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, has promised to increase the aid announced a few days ago to repair the damage in the municipalities of the Guadalhorce valley and the Axarquía.
There has also been extensive damage to farms near the town where large quantities of debris and plastics which were swept away ended up and have damaged numerous subtropical farms. The agricultural organisation Asaja has estimated that there may be around a thousand hectares affected by damage in the Axarquía.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Necesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.