La Tormenta

Friday arrived. The day of the new arrivals. A storm was brewing, literally. It started with a few thunder storms during the night. By 9am we thought it was over. I took Monica to work just in case it started raining again. It never rained. It absolutely bucketed it down! The time of arrival at Málaga airport for the assorted "hangers on" was 10:30am. By 10am the storm started. We watched from the terrace as the rain poured down. "There in for a rough landing" laughed papa, "It couldn't be worse". Oh yes it can.


The view from the terrace.

The lightning strikes started to take there toll on the electric. The rain got heavier and heavier. A river was rushing down the road. The force of the water taking rocks and other debris down the road. It was relentless. By the time it came to pick Monica up from work at 2pm, it showed no signs of breaking. It was getting worse.

I made a quick dash to the car. The road was covered by a torrent at least a foot high. The amount of debris under the wheels was unbelievable. I managed to get the car out and slowly went downstream. At the top of Cardiac Hill, the Guardia Civil had closed the road. That's when I thought it was a bad idea to venture out. Hail stone was now bouncing off the bonnet. Hail! in Nerja!

The crawl through town was a nightmare. The Guardia civil were out. They closed the bridge near the Supersol for fear of the bridge collapsing. It transpired that the basement car park at Supersol was completely flooded. I managed to get to Monica's office and decided it would be best to sit out the storm there.


The bottom of our street.

Almost an hour later the storm passed. We got in the car for the journey home. There was no chance of going up our street. I had to ditch it behind the apartments at the back. Walking around to our apartment we saw more devastation. Trees blown into the road. The river going down to the beach had burst through a retaining wall. Neighbours were out on our street attempting to build a dam to divert water away from the cars.


The dam!


The beach road.

Later in the afternoon and the weather was calm. The sun beginning to break out. We ventured down to the beach. The carnage was hard to take in. Many of the business had been flooded. The force of the water had moved cars down the street. Several channels had been cut through the beach. Driftwood and debris had been swept into the sea, as far out as 500 metres from the shore. The paseo was blocked with mud. At the far end the last chringito was destroyed by a landslide. A wooden hut on the beach had been swept down towards the sea. It was a disaster area. It looked like it would take weeks to clear up.


Crossing the paseo to the beach.


Copacabana now on the lake.


The "All that Jazz" end of the paseo.


Channel through the beach. One of several!


The remains of the Chiringito.

The very next day saw a return to the normal Nerja weather, The clean up operation was well underway. Large lorries taking away the debris from the beach. We even saw people heading to the beach as if nothing had happened. Unbelievable. We had to check it out.

business as usual.