Floods

Arriondas this morning

Arriondas experienced its worst floods in living memory today. We have had rain for almost a week now and last night the rain didn’t stop. We woke up early in the morning with a new “stream” by our house and expected problems.

Paths on the farm turning into streams

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The hotel is built on a rock side and twice in the last 15 years when there has been very heavy continual rain water has come out of natural cavities in the rock and entered the hotel. This happened this morning and we had water entering in the hotel for about 4 hours. Our guests were brilliant, understanding the problem and helping get the water out of the hotel.

Guests helping sweep water out of the bar lounge

Being on a hill we were lucky. Arriondas built on flat land where two rivers join was less fortunate. At about 10.00h this morning the rivers burst their banks and flooded the town. The army was called in to help evacuate many of the people and in particular the hospital where patients were evacuated in dinghies.

Flood dammage in Arriondas

Once the water had eased we went for a walk with the guests along the “green path” and looked down at Arriondas from Pendas and could appreciate the extent of the damage.

Be late afternoon the sun had come out and hopefully the end of the rain. The water was dropping in Arriondas and people were starting to try and clear up after the flood and evaluate the damage.

By the afternoon the sun was shining, but water was still coming out of the rocks in the lower part of the farm.

In the hotel the guests were enjoying a glass of wine in the sun on the terrace and hoping the weather forecast is right as it now predicts 10 days of sun.

Late afternoon and the guests were sunning themselves on the terrace with a glass of wine and looking forward to the good weather to come!

We would like to express our sympathy with all the people in Arriondas who have suffered from the flooding.

More photos and information on the flooding in Arriondas (in Spanish)