About 2,000 homes in Tarragona continue without electricity due to the violent storm

BarcelonaTarragona suffered the worst consequences of the serious storm that affected the country on Monday, and some areas have not yet recovered. This is the case for about 2,000 homes subscribed to the company Endesa, which continue to be without electricity due to the heavy rainfall recorded, which caused small floods and fallen trees. The strong wind caused them to fall on the wiring and electrical infrastructure, leaving thousands of subscribers without supply. The main affected areas are in the urbanizations of the eastern part of the city, and there are still residents without electricity supply in Monnars, l’Escorpí, and Rodolat del Moro. However, the forecast is that the service will be fully restored during this Tuesday.

According to the company's report to the ACN, to mitigate the situation, several power generators have been installed to provide provisional supply to the areas where the power outages have occurred. The company has detected four incidents that have been ongoing since the events and is working with about fifteen teams of electrical operators on the ground, accompanied by five felling brigades. In parallel, company teams are touring the various affected areas to inspect the lines and detect any anomalies. Endesa has highlighted that the work is being carried out in coordination with the Guardia Urbana of Tarragona and the Bombers de la Generalitat.

Progressive recovery

The main impacts of the storm in Tarragona have been concentrated in the Part Baixa, El Serrallo, the beach areas, La Móra, the Entrevies and Francolí industrial estates, and several urbanizations in Llevant, which are gradually returning to normal. The storm has also affected several campsites in the city, where some families have had to be temporarily rehoused within the same establishments or in others nearby, as some clients explained to the ACN. Among the registered incidents, the impact of lightning has scorched a palm tree.

Regarding mobility, the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) has explained that it maintains provisional disruptions on four bus lines. The service will be restored as soon as the traffic routes allow buses to pass. The mayor of Tarragona, Rubén Viñuales, remarked that, despite the intensity of the storm and the numerous incidents, there have been no personal injuries. He also defended that the council's priority during the episode has been to "guarantee people's safety, attend to incidents, and restore normality as soon as possible".

Regarding the hail recorded in Segrià, initial on-site checks indicate that there will be little impact on crops. This is due, on the one hand, to the fact that stone fruit has practically already been harvested and that pears have been collected by 70%. The heavy rainfall that has affected the central area of Ribera d'Ebre, especially the municipalities of Móra d'Ebre and Móra la Nova, has left completely perforated cement fiber roofs, unusable solar panels, and cars with broken windows and visibly dented roofs.

The sending of ES-Alert

Despite the heavy rains on both Saturday and Monday, no ES-Alert was sent to the public. The Government spokesperson and Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, assured that the sending of this alert is based on a "technical" criterion, although she clarified that the management of the torrential rain episode in recent days in Tarragona will be reviewed. Nevertheless, and as the Government argued on Saturday, she highlighted that the forecasts for Saturday morning in Tarragonès and Baix Penedès did not reach level 5 or 6 of emergency, from which the sending of the alert is planned.

According to Paneque, it is Civil Protection who decides "if it is useful" to send an Es-Alert when there is an update on the danger of precipitation, as happened this Monday, when level 6 was reached. "We have not had to regret any personal injury. The first objective is met," she said, regarding whether they are satisfied with the management of these episodes. On the other hand, the deputy director general of Coordination and Management of Emergencies of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, justified that an ES-Alert message was not sent because they were “sudden” and had “little predictability”. In an interview with El matí de Catalunya Ràdio, she stated that there was no forecast that “a situation of this type could occur”.

Solé stressed that when the downpours occurred, the margin for warning was “minimal”. Therefore, the official pointed out that the public could not be alerted as on other occasions, such as “the day before so that people can prepare”. Solé recalled that this technology is used when there is a “high probability”.

The deputy director general specified that messages are sent with levels from 5 out of 6 and 6 out of 6, as this means forecasts of heavy showers of 50% and “very high probability”, respectively. However, she qualified that there have been dispatches with level 5 and “no rain has occurred”, attributing it to “the probability component that meteorological prediction has”. In this line, Solé emphasized that there is a “climate emergency situation”, in which “extreme phenomena are becoming more frequent”. This, she pointed out, means that “they are not sufficiently detectable”.