Alex Trelinski
IBIZA suffered Tuesday downpours described as ‘historic and extraordinary’ by Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
It said accumulated figures reached 252 litres per m2 throughout the day in the island’s capital and a record of 174 litres per m2 at the airport.
These were the highest recorded levels of rainfall since monitoring started in 1952 at the airport.
Aemet’s Balearic Islands spokesperson, Miquel Gili, said additional data from some Ibiza stations were ‘close to 300 litres.
“In just one day, we got a third of the annual rainfall,”·Gili added.
150 members of the Military Emergency Unit(UME) were sent from Valencia on Tuesday and worked during the night with local emergency services and the troops deployed from Mallorca.
They cleared flooded roads, and then moved onto affected car parks and urbanisations.
Main routes hit by floods included access to the airport, the Puig d’en Valls tunnel and access to Ibiza City via Avenida Santa Eularia, which were closed on Wednesday morning.
Up to midday on Wednesday, there were 179 reported incidents according to the General Directorate of Emergencies.
Firefighters last night rescued four people who had been trapped in a hotel after a rockslide.
Three of them were treated at the scene but one person was taken to the Vilas Clinic.
Most of the calls to emergency services related to flooding of land and roads, as well as fallen trees and walls.
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