Here Comes The Story Of The Hurricane

Well some debate as to whether it was a hurricane or not. The winds were of hurricane strength at over 100 kilometres per hour and lasted for a good 15 minutes. The storm tracked across the island, making landfall around Palma and then more or less following the line of the motorway before leaving at Alcúdia Bay.

At a round half five yesterday afternoon, it was an OMG moment. You could see it coming. The sky was a mix of almost jet black with grey and whiter splashes, tumbling and rolling. There was a mad rush to close the shutters, remove anything dangerous from the terraces, and then it hit. If it wasn’t a hurricane, it certainly seemed like one. The rain came in horizontal on that 100kph wind, finding its way under a set of two doors and cascading down the stairs. The pines next door, normally bent away from the sea, were thrown bolt upright and one couldn’t take it. You could hear the snap. The power went; someone slipped on the wet marble of the stairs bringing more towels; through a window mostly all you could see was a grey wash of rain travelling at huge speed and the barely discernible branches of palms being whipped and hurled around. For some 15 minutes it lasted.

The kerbstones are quite high. Thankfully. The water was lapping onto the pavement. A neighbour was trying, in vain, to unblock the drains. It took us a while to even locate them. But then the water started to subside, despite being added to by the pumps from underground garages. The power was back, the mains water was back. It was over.

And today, in the aftermath, everyone has a hurricane story. A fallen tree, torn-down cables, trapped in cars, trapped in Al Campo (where security were not letting people leave). And some start to take the air of myth. There was apparently a tsunami in Alcúdia. There wasn’t. But that’s how it goes. A bit of a story, then a bit of exaggeration, then a bit more. And in years to come the hurricane of October 2007 will have taken on its own mythical proportions, unless, that is, there is worse to come.


QUIZ
Yesterday - yes of course it was The Farm. Today’s title?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)