Gales cause damage in Alicante province
Trees uprooted and roofs blown off in high winds
FIREFIGHTERS were called out to 115 incidents caused by gale force winds which occurred all around Alicante province between 10.00 and 19.00 last Friday.
The gusts, which reached 90km/h, brought down trees – in one case crushing a van; as well as causing damage to infrastructure and buildings.
Fortunately no injuries were reported during the storm.
The north of the province was worst hit, with Ondara council warning residents to stay indoors.
One of the palm trees outside Benissa’s Puríssima Xiqueta church blew down and landed on a parked white van, caving in the roof and doors and smashing all the windows.
Firefighters were called in to remove the remains of the tree by cutting it into chunks.
A large pine tree blew down and landed in the middle of Les Planes road over the top of the Montgó, leaving a wall of branches blocking the carriageway.
Emergency services answered multiple call-outs in Pego, El Verger, Ondara, Jávea, and Denia after gusts tore off tiles and cornices from houses and blocks of flats.
Also in Ondara, corrugated steel sheets were torn clean away from the sports centre and a pergola next to the Sanchis Guarner primary school, and were carried off down the streets.
The council told residents to stay indoors in case they were hit by flying objects.
Denia shut streets – the main Plaza Jaume I, the Torrecremada park and the castle – as residents reported bar chairs and tables which had been stacked up, unused, on terraces being blown away.
Metal fences and plastic bollards along Calle Joan Fuster, at the back of the town and at the railway line, were flattened.
The gales caught out fruitand-veg sellers during the weekly market on Calle La Vía, forcing them to dismantle their stalls against the clock.
In Jijona part of the roof of a nougat production factory blew off and firefighters were called in to secure the structure. They reported that ‘only material damage’ had occurred at the site.
Firefighters also reported that they had been called out to incidents in Elche.