‘There was a person in the river’
HOLIDAYMAKERS DESCRIBE HORROR AS FLASH FLOODS CAUSE CARNAGE IN MAJORCA
HOLIDAYMAKERS who were caught up in the tragic floods which hit Majorca this week have described how washing machines and fridges were being carried along by the torrent, and cars ended up piled on top of each other.
Ten people - two of them an elderly British couple - died when torrential rain fell on Tuesday evening.
Kerry Kirkman from Jacksdale was visiting elderly relatives with her eight-year-old son and her husband Shaun at S’illot on the east coast of Majorca when the flood struck.
The 42-year-old said that the family had been in the restaurant of their hotel, the Playa Moreia, when water started coming through the front door at around 7.30pm on Tuesday.
“The staff were getting a bit frantic, mopping everything up, so we went through the bar, but it was being closed. Then my husband looked at the river outside, and there were trees going down it. At this point we realised it was serious.
“We went up to the reception, on the first floor, and some people were grabbing their suitcases and just leaving. We saw a fridge go down the river, and then a washing machine. Then my husband saw a car go down the river. He wasn’t sure if there was anyone in it.
“But then he saw a person in the river, with their arms in the air. But it was too fast to do anything.
“It was crazy. The water was coming down the road, as well. We went up to our room on the third floor. Our boy was terrified, and I felt really scared.”
She said the water started to subside at around 11pm. But the hotel was left with no electricity, and no water on the upper floors, so they were moved to a different hotel.
Meanwhile Misty Attridge was with a group of seven people from Sandiacre who arrived on the island in Saturday.
The group - including her husband, son, parents, aunt and uncle were staying at the Protur Palmeras Playa hotel between S’illot and Sa Coma. The 36-year-old said: “The thunder and lightning started about teatime, and it bucketed it down from teatime onwards.
“We were at the seafront at S’illot, and went back to our hotel. Water was rushing down the road. And water was coming through the windows in the room like a waterfall. There was water on the landings and the reception. The lifts stopped working, and rooms lost power.”
She said the damage was clear to see when they went out the following day. “S’illot was dreadful,” she said. “There were cars piled on top of each other, and the beach has been destroyed. There’s lots of debris on the pathways, and police helicopters are still going over.”
The worst-affected area was around the town of Sant Llorenc, 40 miles east of Palma, but the floods also hit many other towns and resorts in the east of the island.
Some parts of the island received up to 9 inches (23cm) of rainfall in a matter of hours on Tuesday evening.
The British couple who died have been named by the Diario de Mallorca as Anthony Green, 77, and Delia Green, 75, who were in a taxi when it was submerged by the flood waters.