Alex Trelinski
NEARLY a hundred rescues were carried out in the Murcia region over the last two days due to heavy storms, according to the Ministry of Interior.
The Emergency Coordination Centre received 600 calls, with 350 from Murcia City alone.
The rest came from Las Torres de Cotillas, Molina de Segura and other towns in the Vega Media, as well as Los Alcazares.
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Authorities confirmed that rescues of people from homes and vehicles happened without anybody suffering injury.
On Thursday, firefighters rescued three people from a car in the Torre Pacheco municipality while the day before, a driver trapped in her vehicle on the RM-19 close to Sucina was airlifted to safety.
There has been concern that some trees and even buildings were at risk after temperatures rose sharply following the heavy rain.
Murcia’s director of Security and Emergencies, Ricardo Villalba, said: “Even after the storm has passed, they may be very weakened and suffer a collapse.”
The largest number of interventions focused on water drains, the removal of damage on roads and rescues- some of which were described as ‘complex and delicate’ by emergency response teams.
Thursday’s work focused on restoring electricity in several parts of Las Torres de Cotillas- an area that suffered significant pockets of heavy rain and flooding of garages.
Murcia’s Agriculture Minister, Sara Rubira, said that up to Tuesday, rain and hail affected 3,400 hectares of crops with 23,000 tons of agricultural products destroyed- especially stone fruit, oranges, almonds, olives and vineyards.
She added that this represented losses to farmers of around €20 million.
