More than 642 flights have been canceled in the Canary Islands due to a tropical storm. Tenerife airport is the hardest hit.
Las Palmas De Gran Canaria – Tropical storm Hermine has been keeping the Canary Islands (Spain) in suspense since Saturday. The Spanish authorities put the entire archipelago on alert. Due to heavy rain and strong gusts of wind, take-offs and landings were impossible. Hundreds of passengers are stranded at the airports on the Atlantic islands.
Canary Islands: Tropical storm rages on popular holiday islands – Tenerife particularly affected
More than 640 flights have had to be canceled since the weekend, the Spanish airport operator Aena said on Monday, as reported by the afp news agency. According to this, a total of 642 flights to or from the holiday islands in the Atlantic opposite the Moroccan coast were canceled by Monday afternoon, and around 60 more flights were diverted.
Most of the cancellations were on Sunday, followed by 102 more flight cancellations on Monday. Tenerife in particular was affected. The island had the most failures.
Violent storms on the Canary Islands – tropical storm “Hermine” causes record rain after a long drought
Rainfall of more than 100 liters per square meter fell on the islands of Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro. According to the authorities, up to 220 liters per square meter were measured within 24 hours on the island of La Palma. It’s record rainfall for the month of September.
There and also on the larger islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, there were isolated power failures, landslides and flooded basements. Trees fell too. A total of 1,500 storm deployments were recorded, reports the Spanish newspaper El Pais . According to reports, no one was injured.
For Monday, the Spanish weather service predicted less heavy rainfall than at the weekend, but “heavy precipitation” is expected to continue, especially in the west of the islands. Gran Canaria is still on alert, according to the civil protection of the Canary Islands. A pre-warning is active for Lanzarote and Fuerteventura on Monday afternoon. Around midnight, however, the precipitation is expected to subside. The schools will be open again on Tuesday on all islands, it is said.
As Tropical Storm Hermione weakens, Ian gathers strength over the Atlantic. The hurricane is heading for the US state of Florida. (ml/dpa/afp)
