The Guardia Civil began using drones today in the search for the missing climber and champion Balearic free fall diver David Cabrera who went missing while canyoning in the Tramuntana mountains on Monday, just as Storm Gloria hit the Balearics.
Over 50 volunteers have now joined the emergency and security services in the hunt for the missing 34-year-old on land and while marine search and rescue vessels comb the seas off the north of the island, the Guardia Civil began using drones this morning, the 112 emergency service reported.
At first light today, the Guardia Civil said that only two areas around the Torrent de na Mora, where Cabrera was canyoning, remained to be searched on land which is why they stepped up their search of the sea.
In the meantime, the search for two other people who went missing during the storm continued in Ibiza. One of the missing men is a Briton, who has been identified as Ben Garland, and on Thursday, coast guards searching for Garland said his jacket had been found around 300 metres off the coast at Punta des Gat near the beach where the Briton is believed to have vanished on Tuesday during the storm.
Spanish authorities said today that the death toll from the storm has risen to at least 12 with numerous searches continuing across the country. With the focus also very much on the damage and the clean up operation, Alicia Homs, a PSOE MEP who is from Majorca, registered a written request with the European Commission which calls for financial aid for areas of the Balearics which have suffered “serious material, economic and human damage” because of Storm Gloria.
Homs has drawn attention to the fact that in 2017 the European Commission approved a supplement to the EU Solidarity Fund.
This created a special financial mechanism by which 95% of the costs of reconstruction following natural disasters are funded by member states.
As well as aid for affected areas, Homs argues that this mechanism is necessary because of “ever more intense storms caused by climate change”.
The western Mediterranean is one of the EU regions which is suffering the most from “the new climate reality”.
The EU should assist these regions with funding to recover from the effects of storms and to adapt to the new realities, such as the rising sea level.
She added that the Balearics are “doubly vulnerable”, an example of this having been interruptions to supplies of goods.
The EU should therefore reserve special treatment for islands in the Mediterranean which have the disadvantage of insularity.