Dear Sir,
I suspect that by now, you are flooded (sorry!) with emails/photos of the floods on the island but I just wanted to point out that our problem (and probably that of so many others) is purely the fault of the Consell de Mallorca who have the responsility (but not, apparently, the funding) to maintain the torrents. The personnel there were extremely helpful but we think they may be past masters at the art of "talking the talk" but not so good at "walking the walk!"
We live slightly downhill from one which has not been cleared since we moved in 4 years ago and is often used as a waste tip by locals (passers by wouldn’t dump huge bags of beer cans/bottles when the punt verde is only a short distance away!)
This is the second time in two months that this has happened and came upon us so quickly that we were forced to phone 112 for help. The guy on the other end of the line was very helpful but the police were not, saying we should leave but not bring our two dogs and two cats! What state would our house be in if a 55kg and a 45kg Rhodesian Ridgeback were left indoors for a day or so? Then, how would we feed and water them? The fire brigade would not come out. Our request for additional sandbags was met with a stoney silence before being told it was not something they would do. We have 30 sandbags and a large plank of wood to slow down the river-like flow in through our front gates but this means we cannot leave without the backed up water entering the garden!
So several holes had to be knocked in the base of the two walls that face onto fields to relieve the pressure plus an electric pump to squirt it over one of those walls. So far we are only maintaining the status quo but the threat of a further 3-4 days rain might mean our house is also flooded. What will it take to make the government realise there should be an emergency plan for "disasters" like ours? It is appreciated that these only occur infrequently but UK has managed to sort out problems like this although this does happen more frequently nowadays.
In the meantime, being off-grid, we are relying on friends who are more fortunate to drive to a dry spot on our "cami" and drop off a can or two of diesel for the generator which backs up our solar panel system.
Regards
Brian and Lynn Gatcombe
Costitx