STORM CHAOS RETURNS TO THE CANARIES

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE Tuesday February 2 2010

STORMS lashed the Canary Islands on Monday, flooding the regional capital Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

In a an echo of last November's deluge which caused flash-flooding in the Orotava valley of northern Tenerife, high winds and waves battered the coasts and brought with them torrential rain.

Tenerife's Cabildo government declared an orange alert on Monday afternoon, closing schools and advising residents to take emergency measures. The alert was rescinded on Tuesday evening.

One official said that the tempest was just short of the tropical storm level.

Fortunately no-one was reported killed, although some people had to be rescued from the floods by emergency dservices, which also caused extensive damage to property.

Water flows of up to 144,000 litres per minute were measured in Tenerife.

The normally dry Barranco de Santos – the ravine which runs through the city of Santa Cruz – was in full spate, carrying tons of soil, stones, logs and branches down into the harbour.

The spectacle of arid valleys springing into flood was repeated across the islands.

Roads became rivers, slowing or stopping traffic. The surface of the tarmac was washed away in many places, and some roads even caved in, exposing water and sewage pipes.

Bus and tram services in Santa Cruz and neighbouring La Laguna were affected. One tram was derailed near Candelaria hospital.

Some flights from the northern Los Rodeos airport were delayed.

The ground floors of homes, shops, churches and other buildings were left awash with mud and vegetation. Further damage was caused as garden walls collapsed.

By Tuesday afternoon authorities, residents and businesses were hard at work cleaning up after the storm, but electricity and water supplies had still not been restored in some parts of the capital.

Bulldozers were used to clear mud and debris from the streets.

Celebrations for the local religious holiday of the Virgin of the Candelaria was cancelled in the wake of the storm.

The extreme weather struck in the early phases of of Tenerife famous carnival, and the start of its highlight the Murga contest, due to begin on Monday night, was delayed until Wednesday.

The mystery of the Guanches

The origins and language of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands remain a mystery, writes Dr Sabina Goralski Filonov Translation by James Tweedie The guanches, the aboriginals of the Canary Islands whose origin, lost in the mists of time, still arouses intense and passionate debate and great controversy about their origins and the how the seven Canary Islands were populated – which according to some studies occurred between 10,000 and 8,000 years BC. Literally, the word ‘Guan’ means man or person and ‘Chenech’ or ‘Chinet’ is applied to the island of Tenerife, thus meaning a man or inhabitant of Tenerife – although according to Núñez de la Peña, the Spanish named them the Guanchos during the conquest of the islands. But with the passage of time, experts in the subject are questioning whether the word Guanche was used to designate the primitive inhabitants of all the islands in the pre-Hispanic period. The term ‘Guanche’ has also ceased to be applied to the di...

Homeless dogs’ home fights for compensation

Dingo Dogs owner Phil Nelson at his since-demolished home. DOGS’ home owner Phil Nelson has vowed to take legal action following his eviction from his Dingo Dogs animal sanctuary in August. by James Tweedie Indian-born Mr Nelson, along with former girlfriend and Dingo Dogs treasurer Leigh Crouch were left homeless by the court-ordered eviction and have been sharing a small hut in the mountains near Las Chafiras with ten dogs and three cats ever since. Mr Nelson’s dispute with his former landlord began in September 2004, after he officially registered his rented hillside finca as an animal sanctuary. It was a requirement of his registration that he keep proper financial records, including receipts for payment of rent. Mr Nelson says that despite having a rental contract and paying his rent “as regular as clockwork” for years, his landlord never gave him a receipt even after he began asking for one every month in 2004. In May 2005, after his landlord ha...

No 'day in court' for Zuma as supporters take Durban

The trial of South Africa's ex-president Jacob Zuma was postponed for two months on Friday pending his legal challenge to the resurrection of decade-old corruption charges. Outside the Durban High Court, thousands of Mr Zuma's supporters from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and other organisations brought the Indian Ocean port city to a standstill. Zuma supporters rally around a stage set up outside the Durban High Court The ANC Women's League, Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans' Association were present, along with the Black land First Campaign, National Interfaith Council of South Africa, the Commission for Religious Affairs. Revellers wore ANC t-shirts and other merchandise in defiance of warnings by Police Minister Bheki Cele Former minister Des van Rooyen and Eastern Cape ANC leader Andile Lungisa accompanied Mr Zuma to the doors of the court. Inside he sat smiling a few feet apart from Christine Guerrier, a representative of Fre...

Venezuela condemns MUD silence over terror attack

Venezuela’s foreign minister condemned the opposition and their foreign backers for their silence over Tuesday’s helicopter attack on the capital. At a press conference on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition leader Henry Ramos’ only comment on social media was that the attack was “useless.” “Firstly that does not condemn it,” Mr Moncada said. “Secondly it appears he was condemning it because it didn’t have the desired effect, that is to say, that it would blow up the building.” And he asked why fellow Mud leader Henrique Capriles lacked the “moral courage to... repudiate a terrorist act.” The newly-appointed minster and former ambassador to Britain accused fellow members of the Washington-based Organisation of American States of “feigning ignorance” and so protecting the culprits. And he accused sections of the media of portraying the culprit — Police investigator and one-time action film star Oscar Perez — as a “Rambo ...

The Labour-Snatchers

WHAT do you call an event that would see a country lose a third of its population? A catastrophe? An apocalypse? In Europe they call it “Union.” According to the Vienna-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the “free movement of labour” between European Union member states will see that fraction of some countries' populations emigrate in the next 40 years. A recent IIASA study, reported on Friday by the EU Observer website, says Romania and Croatia's populations will fall by 30 percent by 2060, and Lithuania's by 38 percent. By contrast, eight years of the West's proxy war on Syria, when much of the country was overrun by terrorists who behead followers of other religious sects, has seen between 12 and 23 percent of the population flee the country. The 1983-85 Ethiopian famine killed about 1.2 million people and drove another 400,000 out of the country, about five per cent of the population at the time. Another 41 years of EU...

Search This Blog