Empordà has been mythologized. It has been pampered. The media often talks about Cadaqués, Dalí, Josep Pla. Many people from Barcelona spend their summers there. The tramuntana is a wind with pedigree. Greco-Roman civilization reached us through Empúries: Manuel Brunet turned that beginning into the fable The marvelous landing of the Greeks in Ampurias. It is "the smiling plain" that Joan Maragall sang about in Enric Morera's sardana or the one that Jacint Verdaguer looked at from Mare de Déu del Mont to write the epic poem Canigó about the origins of the Catalan nation. The windy and rugged landscape of Alt Empordà and the abrupt and undulating landscape of Baix, with their small rural settlements, are a common theme in Catalan sentimentality, and the same can be said of the coves and beaches of the coast, which are so crowded.

It's a winter Friday, and in the Empordà region, signs indicating it's garoinada season are everywhere, especially at the roundabouts leading into the villages. In Palafrugell, on market Saturday, they only have one stall. They've put up a sign saying they're from Palamós, that they sell them for 21 euros per kilo (between twelve and twenty depending on the weight), and the curious thing is that they've spelled their name with extreme correctness. garoínasThey are small, as the restorers in the area tell me, smaller in diameter than usual in other years (they must be 5 cm), but I cannot check if they are empty or full because they are closed, of course.

During the easterly winds of two weeks ago that hit Catalonia hard, The Empordà plain was completely floodedEspecially the entire stretch of the Baix Ter, on both sides of the riverbeds before the mouth, with crops ruined, roads closed, and beaches covered in sediment. Even the Ullà retaining wall, a 17th-century structure, was breached, suffering structural damage from the storm. Glory In 2020, a project diverted water from the river through irrigation ditches and streams for surrounding crops. Two weeks later, the damage is still visible: fields are covered in puddles, rural roads are damaged, streams continue to flow strongly, and the Ter Gorge is full of logs and debris. Repairing it will cost the local councils and farmers thousands of euros, and they have already requested assistance from the Catalan government. And this is by no means the first time this has happened: every five to eight years, when there is heavy rainfall in the region or when the river is full due to torrential rains in the Pasteral reservoir basin, the situation repeats itself. In fact, according to the Catalan flood zone map, the area between Girona and Estartit is one of the largest flood-prone zones in the country. For all these reasons, mayors, business owners, farmers, and scientists are demanding improvements and working on new initiatives to prevent, as far as possible, the effects of future floods. The region's main complaint focuses on the state of the roads, which on days of heavy rain makes it impossible to travel by car between municipalities such as Ultramort, Verges, Jafre, Sierra de Daró, Torroella de Montgrí, and Pals. The Central Board of Users of the Baix Ter, which represents some forty municipalities, private landowners, and the irrigation community, laments this situation: "Any emergency becomes extremely complicated and puts the safety of people at risk, for example, those who need to go to the hospital in Palamós or travel for family reasons," explains Francesc. €50 million to improve roads

This is a long-standing demand: to raise by half a meter roads that haven't been upgraded in decades, with narrow lanes, often two-way, and without shoulders that run directly onto the ditch. After several meetings, the Generalitat (Catalan government) has committed to this, and the Department of Territory, just before the outbreak of commuter rail chaosThe Catalan government presented the mayors with a comprehensive program of actions to improve the roads of the Baix Ter region, with a total investment exceeding 50 million euros. The main project will be the improvement of the Verges–Colomers route (GI-633 and GI-634), with a budget of 14 million euros, which includes widening seven kilometers of road and improving its alignment. The project will be put out to tender in the second quarter of this year, and work will begin in winter, along with other improvements to secondary roads. In parallel, following the effects of the storm, the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) also intends to launch a comprehensive flood risk study of the Baix Ter region to define structural measures and reduce risks.

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Toti Soler (Vilassar de Dalt, 1949) often falls asleep listening to his own music: the slow and subtle pieces that he and his daughter call transparenciesFifty years after the celebrated concert with Ovidi Montllor at the Olympia, Soler leads a quiet and peaceful life. Born into a family of musicians—his great-grandfather was an opera singer, his mother a pianist—he found two undeniable virtues in the guitar his aunt gave him: the direct contact of his finger against the string, and the ability to carry it on his back and take it with him wherever he went. The rest is history: more than 400 songs and 37 albums, and having been the irreplaceable accompanist for generations of artists.

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The peasant revolt, expressed in noisy demonstrations, but also in provocative actions such as turning village entrance signs upside down, has inspired the new Brots festival, which will be held from October 30 to November 2 in several villages in the Baix Empordà region. It will combine music, dance, and visual arts as a tribute to a land where "for millennia, the people of the grove worked their backs off to extract green gold from the olive trees." Organized by the Musical Youth of Torroella de Montgrí, Brots is an anti-festival that deliberately distances itself, in terms of its conception and dates, from the large summer festivals that attract crowds and are mostly held by the sea. "It's an initiative designed for everyone, but especially for the people of the country and the farmers, and to highlight that hinterland that is discovered when you look at land and not at sea," says Martí Sabrià, festival advisor.

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Summer is a time for major festivals. These are important days on the calendar for many small towns that, once a year, organize popular events and nighttime celebrations in the squares to foster communion between neighbors and visitors. This summer, however, GausasIn , a small town in the Baix Empordà region with around sixty inhabitants, what was supposed to be an evening of celebration and fun ended unexpectedly. On the night of Saturday, August 16th, during the long weekend of Our Lady of the Assumption, while concerts were being held in the square, a group of thieves secretly broke into several homes in the town. Taking advantage of the festive atmosphere, with people distracted and a lot of movement from outsiders, the criminals took the opportunity to go unnoticed and rummage through the drawers of some of the town's farmhouses in search of valuables.

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In summer, the massive influx of tourists and visitors more than doubles the population of the Costa Brava. All services are disrupted by the region's seasonal dynamics, and one of the hardest hit is healthcare. At Palamós Hospital, the only one in the Baix Empordà, healthcare workers report a situation of "extreme saturation" that is overwhelming the emergency department. Staff complain that the health center, with around thirty emergency rooms, cannot cope with the demand from vacationers who, while on vacation, suffer some condition that requires medical attention.

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Firefighters are working to extinguish a fire in Castell d'Aro (Baix Empordà) that has already affected between 50 and 55 hectares of vegetation and has the potential to burn up to 250 hectares. The fire broke out this Friday at 12.40 at the bottom of a ravine and up to 75 crews (60 ground and 15 air), have moved to try to contain the flames' advance. The fire started in the area of Can Manel, at the bottom of a ravine, and the wind helped it spread rapidly towards an area surrounded by scattered housing developments, farmhouses and a golf course. Civil Protection has evacuated around 350 people because of the smoke.

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A new fire has broken out in the Montgrí massif in Empordà this Thursday afternoon, which firefighters are already working on extinguishing. The emergency services were alerted around half past six and, according to the first reports, the flames are burning in a wooded area. The fire started in Torroella de Montgrí (Baix Empordà) next to the area known as the Casa del Guarda. Twenty ground crews and seven air crews (two helicopters, two bombers and three surveillance planes) are working to extinguish the fire.

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The beginning of summer is a good time to take a look at the accumulated rainfall during the last months, which is an indicator of how dangerous the fire season can be. The variability of rainfall means that while some regions of Catalonia are in a normal situation or even favorable in terms of moisture conditions of forests, others are in conditions of extreme drought.

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