Miquel Àngel March, a former mayor of Pollensa, is the owner of a finca through which the torrent L'Assarell passes. He has described the torrent as beautiful, but when the water rises dramatically, it is very difficult "to fight against nature and the force of water". The Guardia Civil are more to the point. On Monday, the torrent "turned into hell".
Marina Cuevas Jurado, the 29-year-old doctor whose boyfriend, Luis París Musolas, a 37-year-old nurse, was one of the two men who lost their lives in the torrent, has spoken of a "deadly waterfall". The Guardia say that the funnel effect in a narrow section produced a surge of a metre and a half. It swept away everything in its path.
It was around 4.40pm when the search for Luis and Martín Prado Mestre, a 27-year-old anaesthetist, started. Once it was dark, the rescue teams from the Guardia Civil and the Mallorca Fire Brigade used headlamps and spotlights. Fran Ramón was one of the firefighters who found the bodies. "It must have been around eight o'clock. We saw a blue helmet in the water. As we approached, we could see that the other missing person was also there, with a green helmet. I think one must have fallen and the other tried to help him, but they both drowned."
They worked at Son Llàtzer Hospital. On Tuesday, the hospital was in mourning.