The storm that has hit a good part of the Catalan coast in recent hours has only aggravated the problems that were already clearly visible on Thursday after the impact of Storm Nelson, the culprit that this Holy Week has been watered down. much of Spain. The damage occurs precisely when the beach season starts. Furthermore, these episodes unleash concern about the future of many walks and buildings on the Catalan coast in the face of climate change.
The latest rains and strong waves, which yesterday reached five meters at the buoys of Begur and the port of Barcelona, have swept away the sand from some beaches on the coasts of Barcelona, the Garraf, Baix Llobregat and Maresme regions, and also from the Costa Brava. The storm has also destroyed promenades such as Sant Antoni de Calonge, which had already been greatly weakened as a result of the last storm. Here some palm trees have fallen.
Furthermore, in the sandy areas of Barcelona, especially in the most central ones, such as Sant Sebastià, the bad weather has left a few canals exposed, caused large embankments, left a few showers bare... and also deepened the open gap. some days ago. The hole is already more than a meter deep, and it does nothing other than feed the feeling that the sea is eating the beach in bites. The poor state of the sea forced the red flag to be raised on this beach and the yellow flag on Barceloneta.
In Sitges, where for days it had been feared that the worst was yet to come, the waves made a good part of the sand disappear from the beaches of the old town. This forced access to pedestrians to be closed as a precaution. The water reached the Cassettes on Garraf beach. A few kilometers further north, the extensive sandy area of Gavà beach has also disappeared in some points and the sea water reached the bike path and the promenade. Also in Maresme, in Arenys de Mar, the Musclera beach woke up with hardly any sediment, which also decreased in the Cavaió area.
Further north, on the Costa Brava, in some sections of the Baix Empordà, the damage was much more pronounced. “I have never seen a storm like this before,” the mayor of Calonge i Sant Antoni, Jordi Soler, said yesterday in statements to La Vanguardia. Not even when on Sant Esteve's Day in 2008, the Costa Brava experienced what is considered "the storm of the century", with promenades and ports destroyed and countless damage to the coastline and businesses near the sea that took months to recover. .
In this municipality of Baix Empordà, yesterday's storm destroyed the promenade in its central section and the Torre Valentina beach, about 70 meters wide, was left without a grain of sand. Five palm trees on the promenade, which had already been greatly weakened as a result of the last two storms that the municipality has suffered in the last month, collapsed into the sea. The mayor plans to meet tomorrow with the government's deputy delegate in Girona, Pere Parramon, to analyze the situation and estimate the damage, which could amount to one million euros. He will also urge the need to unground the breakwater project, which has already been approved, and which he is pending bidding and awarding. “It is urgent, only in this way can consequences of this type be alleviated,” said Soler. Some breakwaters, which will be placed perpendicular to the beach, and which should contribute to changing the flow of the sea currents in the area and which drag the sand towards the port of Palamós.
The situation yesterday forced the closure of the central section of the Sant Antoni de Calonge promenade to vehicles and pedestrians and several terraces in the area could not open. Several signs that read 'Promenade damaged by the storm. Danger!' They prevented pedestrians from approaching the area to see the situation with their own eyes.
A slogan, to avoid approaching promenades and take extreme precautions in areas of the coast with strong waves, which had been widely disseminated in recent hours by Civil Protection. The wind left gusts close to 70 km/h at the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, 67 km/h in Palafrugell or 60.5 km/h in Malgrat de Mar. Although at noon, the alert for strong waves ended, which passed In the pre-alert phase, it was also recommended to stay away from breakwaters, breakwaters, boardwalks and other areas where waves break.
In the interior of Catalonia, the flooding of the Cinca River, a tributary of the Segre, as a result of the rainfall of recent days has caused a notable increase in the river's flow. The water has surpassed the retaining wall and has flooded the fruit fields in Massalcoreig (Segrià).
