More than 200 000 people were left without power on Tuesday on Spain’s Canary Islands after Tropical Storm Delta wreaked havoc on the popular winter tourist destination, killing at least seven people and causing serious damage.
Delta struck the archipelago with winds gusting at more than 150kph, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake overnight before spinning off towards the Moroccan coast, but by late Tuesday conditions had improved.
”Weather conditions are back to normal” and all danger is over, the Canary Islands’ regional leader, Adan Martin, told a news conference.
On Monday afternoon, classes were suspended for 320 000 schoolchildren as Delta swooped in, the 25th storm of the year announced by the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC), which said that October’s Vince was the first tropical storm on record to hit the Spanish coast.
Local authorities reported that many roads were cut off and six ports had to be closed, while the Unelco-Endesa electricity company said 265 000 people were without power overnight and into Tuesday on Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
”It’s just not normal, first in that a storm forming off the Azores tends to brew up further south. That it should then come east towards Europe, and to the zone and latitudes of the Canaries, is a very unusual phenomenon,” said Angel Riva, of Spain’s National Meteorological Institute (INM).
Riva said an unusual pattern appeared to be emerging following Tropical Storm Vince hitting Spain in October as Delta left a trail of material damage and left about 200 000 people with out power, mainly on Tenerife, on Tuesday afternoon.
”With Vince, it was absolutely without precedent that it should come as far as the Spanish coast and now this year we have already had two phenomena of this type.
”It seems to us that since we have had satellite images, for 20 to 30 years, there has not been another tropical storm in the Canaries.
”There have been disturbances coming from the south, but far less virulent and not as a tropical storm.”
Asked what caused the storm, the spokesperson said: ”It is difficult to know. People talk about climate change and what we know is that the planet’s average temperature is rising.
”Undoubtedly a rise in temperature must in some way influence these phenomena, but we don’t know to what degree.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a local spokesperson said that ”an old man died at Puerto Rosario on the island of Fuerteventura”, falling from his roof after dawn as he was trying to repair it.
The fatality took the casualty toll to seven with at least six sub-Saharan would-be immigrants having drowned in whipped-up seas on Monday about 400km to the south of the islands.
According to local officials, between 10 and 12 people who were on the same vessel as the victims are listed missing and the search has been called off for more survivors after 32 others were taken badly hurt to hospital in Las Palmas.
A slew of internal flights to and from the island of La Palma, a popular destination with British and German tourists, have had to be cancelled.
One charter flight coming in from Amsterdam had to be diverted to Tenerife.
About 400 people had to spend the night at La Palma airport as the violent winds and the heavy rain continued to afflict the vicinity as the storm headed towards the Moroccan coast, losing intensity.
At Las Palmas, a huge rock nicknamed ”Finger of God” overlooking the sea and a symbol of Gran Canaria, was blown over, as were numerous palm trees, injuring one German tourist on El Hierro.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Epsilon, the 26th named storm of the Atlantic season, is centred about 1 280km east of Bermuda, Weather.com reported on Wednesday.
Epsilon is churning westward and may gradually increase in strength. It is, however, expected to shift to an east-northeast track after about 24 to 30 hours. The storm likely will become extratropical by this weekend as it continues its journey over the open waters of the eastern Atlantic. — AFP
