On Friday, a coordination meeting was held because of the snow that is expected to fall in the Tramuntana Mountains this weekend. After the meeting finished, the mayor of Escorca, Toni Solivellas, was critical of a lack of foresight on the part of different authorities. He fears a repeat of the chaos that has been caused in the past and notes that a year after the approval of the contingency plan, everything remains the same.
The meeting was called after the Aemet met agency issued an amber alert for heavy snow that has now been extended until 10am on Sunday. Yet Solivellas says that the contingency plan document doesn't formally exist; there is barely even a draft for town halls, police, the fire brigade and others to go by. He suspects that decisions will simply be made "on the fly".
He explains that although text and WhatsApp messages about blocked roads are meant to be sent to residents of affected town halls - Escorca, Fornalutx and Soller in particular - people still look to town halls for information. The problem is, he maintains, that "the information doesn't get to us, therefore, we cannot notify".
In addition to the effective execution of a formal protocol for the snow, he is demanding that there is one person "to coordinate all the teams that are activated in an emergency" so that messages do not get lost along the way.
Solivellas adds that as of last Monday there was already snow up to 20 centimetres depth but that no coordination meeting was called. This only happened when Aemet issued its amber alert on Friday.