It's stormy in Spain.

[Langtoftlad]

Less than 45 mins

 

[HugoBNB]

What concerns me is is this storm classed as a act of God, in Spain will they be able to claim on insurance? I hope they can

You would like to hope that, regardless of what this tragedy is classed as, the Spanish authorities will have already instigated a disaster relief strategy to help all those affected. Also, that they will be looking at the long term situation on all levels to rebuild these communities along with taking steps to mitigate damage from future storms.
A lot of us on here will have travelled through some pretty stormy weather in our MH's. This is a sad, sobering reminder to pay attention and react to local weather warnings en-route wherever you are.
Safe travels all.

 

[HugoBNB]

I was listening to the news whilst browsing here. The Valencian junta have just extended road closures in the region through to at least Sunday to allow access for emergency services. Also, that another red warning for heavy rain has been issued for southern Spain.

 

[jumar]

Yesterday was a holiday in the whole of Spain, we felt very uncomfortable taking our Dutch neighbours for a bike ride in the nearby Sierra, perhaps this is morally wrong to do during these terrible times..
However I needed to go, to get away from the TV and the internet as I was getting a little screwed up about what's happened.
What a surprise greeted us as we rode into areas that normally are quiet on a Friday...
The whole place was full of people on bikes, hiking, having picnics and visiting the bars and restaurants...all this while a Natural Disaster has happened not too far away..
The point I make is. Life goes on, and while we can think and support worthwhile causes we also must continue our lives....
Therefore anyone not thinking of coming to Spain should think again, avoid the worst hit areas, but take your holiday elsewhere...the local communities will appreciate this.
There is a hands on effort to return people to a normal life, areas that have only sustained water damage, so we hope those that can afford a little donation can do so...our Spanish bank has set up a relief fund, we can choose where we can donate our funds..this will be actioned when I finish this post....
One last thing...many Spanish live a very simple life, basic food and living standards, but they would give you their last cent to help you.....having house and contents Insurance isn't a necessity, what they have is enough, but replacing it would be difficult on a basic income or pension, we need to support these people.

 

[chesterfield hooligan]

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[EuroTrotters]

What concerns me is is this storm classed as an act of God, in Spain will they be able to claim on insurance? I hope they can

Yes, what may happen is a club together from the insurance companies. There is a technical term for it and I am sure Simone will be sling to tell us.

 

[Grianan]

I know there is criticism that the official alarm came too late but it’s also a reminder to us all to have severe / extreme alerts enabled on our phones. These work abroad as I found out last week …

Driving north from Provence on our way home, the alarm went off in my phone. It was unmissable!

I had just opened an attachment from our solicitor and I was confused about what the alarm was - my first thought was that it was a virus alert!

But then a warning about flooding in the Ardeche popped up. I was a little confused as we were not really in the Ardeche but it made me check Meteo France and all my weather apps just in case …

Strangely enough I couldn’t see any warnings for the Ardeche on France Meteo. And Tim’s phone didn’t go off even though he has them set up as well.

 

[seasideBill]

I know there is criticism that the official alarm came too late but it’s also a reminder to us all to have severe / extreme alerts enabled on our phones. These work abroad as I found out last week …

Driving north from Provence on our way home, the alarm went off in my phone. It was unmissable!

I had just opened an attachment from our solicitor and I was confused about what the alarm was - my first thought was that it was a virus alert!

But then a warning about flooding in the Ardeche popped up. I was a little confused as we were not really in the Ardeche but it made me check Meteo France and all my weather apps just in case …

Strangely enough I couldn’t see any warnings for the Ardeche on France Meteo. And Tim’s phone didn’t go off even though he has them set up as well.

View attachment 973166

Always worth checking these severe alerts are active on your phone. They should be on by default but users can turn them off. On iPhone select ‘settings’, ‘notifications’ scroll to the bottom of the list to ‘Emergency Alerts’. I assume it’s similar for android phones.

 

[Minxy]

As a visitor / tourist I would hate to add to the burden on emergency services by getting caught in a disaster, getting in the way or using resources needed for people affected. Even items taken for granted such as clean water are precious.

Unless I could help I would do my bit by staying well clear (and contributing cash when possible).

Anyone thinking of not travelling to Spain?

Does it 'feel right' holidaying when the country has suffered such a disaster?

I planned to go in about 3 weeks - having second thoughts......

This is our dilemma at present as we are supposed to be going to Spain early December for 2 months, via France, we usually go down the eastern side but obviously thats gonna be a no-go area for the reasons mentioned. Not sure what to do now!

 

[Riverbankannie]

This is our dilemma at present as we are supposed to be going to Spain early December for 2 months, via France, we usually go down the eastern side but obviously thats gonna be a no-go area for the reasons mentioned. Not sure what to do now!

jumar put it eloquently above though. Go inland, there is so much to see there. On our last trip we didn’t go anywhere in the coastal area but it was March/April so weather on the turn to warmer. I am sure you can pick your way though to the warmer south.

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[Puddleduck]

This is our dilemma at present as we are supposed to be going to Spain early December for 2 months, via France, we usually go down the eastern side but obviously thats gonna be a no-go area for the reasons mentioned. Not sure what to do now!

Stay away from the affected areas and spend as you would normally do, possibly contributing to the disaster fund

 

[Bolti]

One lucky lady.

 

[Viennese]

We Went down to Andalusia spring '23 and avoided Valencia as we were told that it was flooded then

 

[Brains]

What concerns me is is this storm classed as a act of God, in Spain will they be able to claim on insurance? I hope they can

The storm, and therefore the property damage, may be an 'Act of God'
However nearly all the deaths are a 'Failure to Act' by the authorities.

Warnings sent out, after the arrival of the water!

In the UK (every?) river and stream with any history of flooding has got multiple water level gauges fitted, to prevent exactly this sort of issue arising.
You can find the English map here

I can easily find the German, Austrian, Dutch etc. equivalent sites.

But I can't find the Spanish version.
Does it even exist ?
In a first world country with a known flooding problem.

 

[Carpmart]

Wow! Poor woman, but very lucky lady too!

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[Li150]

Yes, what may happen is a club together from the insurance companies. There is a technical term for it and I am sure Simone will be sling to tell us.

Insurance Consortium.

 

[Nigel Crompton]

The storm, and therefore the property damage, may be an 'Act of God'
However nearly all the deaths are a 'Failure to Act' by the authorities.

Warnings sent out, after the arrival of the water!

In the UK (every?) river and stream with any history of flooding has got multiple water level gauges fitted, to prevent exactly this sort of issue arising.
You can find the English map here

View attachment 973268

I can easily find the German, Austrian, Dutch etc. equivalent sites.

But I can't find the Spanish version.
Does it even exist ?
In a first world country with a known flooding problem.

Because, for years and years there is no water in these 'rivers'. They're channels where water sometimes flows when it rains. They can go from bone dry to torrents in minutes

 

[cyberyacht]

Checked with my friend in Gran Alacant, just south of Alicante airport and there's been nothing of consequence there. It seems it was very concentrated around the urban Valencia area.

 

[gus-lopez]

What concerns me is is this storm classed as a act of God, in Spain will they be able to claim on insurance? I hope they can

It is classed as an "extraordinary event" & once classed as such ,as long as you have insurance then all the payouts are nothing to do with the insurance companies, but comes from the 'consorcio' ring fenced fund.
The "consorcio" is a charge on any type of insurance sold in spain be it house,contents, vehicles, machinery , etc,etc.
A small percentage charge is included in each & every policy that is paid in the the Consorcio which is ,supposedly, a ring fenced fund that pays out in the event of any type of natural disaster.
Once Gov.es have stated that it is such then all payouts come from it.

This allows events such as this ,& earthquakes , to be covered.

All you have to do if claiming is either to ring the Consorcio claim line direct & get a claim number or usually your insurance broker will do it for you.
if claiming for house damage & contents that is all covered under one claim number.If you are also claiming for vehicles, boats ,agricultural machinery et;etc;etc; they are additional claims & as such need there own numbers.

 

[EuroTrotters]

It is classed as an "extraordinary event" & once classed as such ,as long as you have insurance then all the payouts are nothing to do with the insurance companies, but comes from the 'consorcio' ring fenced fund.
The "consorcio" is a charge on any type of insurance sold in spain be it house,contents, vehicles, machinery , etc,etc.
A small percentage charge is included in each & every policy that is paid in the the Consorcio which is ,supposedly, a ring fenced fund that pays out in the event of any type of natural disaster.
Once Gov.es have stated that it is such then all payouts come from it.

This allows events such as this ,& earthquakes , to be covered.

All you have to do if claiming is either to ring the Consorcio claim line direct & get a claim number or usually your insurance broker will do it for you.
if claiming for house damage & contents that is all covered under one claim number.If you are also claiming for vehicles, boats ,agricultural machinery et;etc;etc; they are additional claims & as such need there own numbers.

Thats what we claimed on in 2016. But we only got paid 50% of what the actual cost was.

It was a 5 year Bank Policy (Santander). We changed it as soon as it ended. All our neighbours got full 100% reimbursement of costs.

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[Brains]

Because, for years and years there is no water in these 'rivers'. They're channels where water sometimes flows when it rains. They can go from bone dry to torrents in minutes

Northern Europe is no different.
Except most Northern European watercourses have some water most of the year.
But just as in eastern Spain, a Northern European stream can go to a raging torrent in a few minutes.

I used to live next to one.
And to this day I still get 2-3 warnings a year on my phone and recorded messages to my landline warning me that the river will be in spate with an estimated time and height.

My brother lives close to the Thames, he also gets automated warnings of the levels, and once the levels get to a certain point the height is texted every hour.
They know the exact height that will cause a flood in their house (nearly 1,000 years old, not flooded yet!, but been very, very, close)

Just because the dry gully in Spain may only turn into a raging torrent once per decade, is not an excuse to not equip it with a water level gauge.

Hence the casualty figures should include the heads of the authorities who caused the loss of life.
In a first world country, no one should be dying in a flood that could, with the right equipment in place, be predicted.

 

[gus-lopez]

Just because the dry gully in Spain may only turn into a raging torrent once per decade, is not an excuse to not equip it with a water level gauge.

Yet they are covering them over .???? one we have here in town 30m wide & 6m deep & it ends at 2 tubes about 1,5m in diameter & is expected to travel through them for nearly 1km before it reverts to a 50m wide 5m deep rambla.You have to ask where they get these people from?
& both these back in 2012 here were running full bore as was the main one entering Lorca which is around 100m wide & 7 or8 m in depth

 

[Brains]

Yet they are covering them over .???? one we have here in town 30m wide & 6m deep & it ends at 2 tubes about 1,5m in diameter & is expected to travel through them for nearly 1km before it reverts to a 50m wide 5m deep rambla.You have to ask where they get these people from?
& both these back in 2012 here were running full bore as was the main one entering Lorca which is around 100m wide & 7 or8 m in depth

It sounds like a notice board with the name of the individual needs to be erected next to his micro tunnels,
So 'when' (not 'if') it all goes wrong, everyone knows exactly whom to blame!


As an FYI - This sort of information can be put on Google maps.
Name the tunnels after the individual, set up a 'history' of the tunnels.
Get others to add to the history, and say it's a 'location'.
You have the advantage you can do this is two languages.
One day, in a decade or two, when it all goes wrong, the history will be right there for every journalist and citizen to read.

 

[Bolti]

Yet they are covering them over .???? one we have here in town 30m wide & 6m deep & it ends at 2 tubes about 1,5m in diameter & is expected to travel through them for nearly 1km before it reverts to a 50m wide 5m deep rambla.You have to ask where they get these people from?
& both these back in 2012 here were running full bore as was the main one entering Lorca which is around 100m wide & 7 or8 m in depth

We have a modest hill behind our house, when we were having it built in 2006 the planning department at the ayuntamiento insisted we install a trench to carry runoff around and away from the house. We call it the water feature, and joking aside we have seen it flowing like a stream.

 

[Whippetsontour]

my post that you quoted was put on very early morning on Tuesday before the storm developed into the dreadful catastrophe that has caused so much destruction and loss of life..

Sorry I wasn’t having a go , I’m a little in shock, because I believe that I cheated death ! It was a toss up between going north or south to Portugal while we on the coast of Santa Pola , luckily for us I chose south!

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[Bustup15]

We have a modest hill behind our house, when we were having it built in 2006 the planning department at the ayuntamiento insisted we install a trench to carry runoff around and away from the house. We call it the water feature, and joking aside we have seen it flowing like a stream.

A stream, I could live with, a river, may be an issue, but if its a torrent then that's something else altogether.

Joking aside, how fast does it run in flood?

 

[jumar]

Sorry I wasn’t having a go , I’m a little in shock, because I believe that I cheated death ! It was a toss up between going north or south to Portugal while we on the coast of Santa Pola , luckily for us I chose south!

We too think that we could have been caught up somewhere in the worst hit regions in our motorhome.....but circumstances dictated our return home to Murcia...we experienced very mild DANA disruption in our region.

Judith has been to the local Supermarket with a 300€ budget raised by donation to buy Dog and cat food to send to Valencia...even our non humans have needed aid during these difficult times.

Another matter.perhaps its been shown on UK media, that 15,000 members of the general public turned out today in Valencia to help with the clean up...

 

[Fragle]

This is our dilemma at present as we are supposed to be going to Spain early December for 2 months, via France, we usually go down the eastern side but obviously thats gonna be a no-go area for the reasons mentioned. Not sure what to do now!

We are going early January. We only use Aires nothing booked. I will still go and just avoid the areas affected. Spain is a very big country with plenty of places to go that haven’t been affected. As has already been said just down the road from Valencia and life carries on as normal.

 

[Bolti]

A stream, I could live with, a river, may be an issue, but if its a torrent then that's something else altogether.

Joking aside, how fast does it run in flood?

Luckily it does it job and diverts the water away from the property.

 

[DandJ]

Another matter.perhaps its been shown on UK media, that 15,000 members of the general public turned out today in Valencia to help with the clean up...

It has indeed been shown...and many of them were young people. Genuinely heartwarming to see. From the comments made, it just seems to need some real leadership on the ground now...perhaps the Army may bring that?

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