Tenerife was not the island most affected by Hermine, as the weather warnings predicted on Saturday –orange level compared to the red level of El Hierro, the east of La Palma and the south of Gran Canaria, where it actually rained more–, but it did register heavy rainfall. The highest accumulated values were located in the midlands of the municipality of Güímar, with 109 liters per square meter, although they exceeded one hundred in many other points of the Tenerife geography. There were no major floods, such as those that occurred in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, but there were hundreds of incidents, none of them serious.
On an island mobilized to minimize the effects of the storm, with all activities suspended as well as the main parks, squares and visitor centers closed, the Cabildo de Tenerife recorded some thirty landslides and stone falls on the island network of roads without major complications except for the TF-5 North motorway, in which a vehicle was affected by a falling stone while driving. Everything was a shock. There were also more accidents than normal, although no personal injuries. Highway operators had to intervene in six of these accidents on the TF-5, TF-47, TF-1, TF-2, TF-454 and TF-46.
The Corporation’s teams also had to intervene to remove a branch on the TF-5, in puddles formed in Varadero and Las Galletas and in sinkholes on the TF-28. Several sections of the access tunnel to Puerto de la Cruz and the TF-445 from Buenavista del Norte to Punta de Teno were also closed preventively. Most of the landslides were concentrated in the Anaga massif (metropolitan area) and the South.
In Santa Cruz de Tenerife there were no showers except for some intermittent ones in the early hours of Saturday to Sunday. The values of the capital of Tenerife did not exceed, in fact, 70 liters per square meter, although the emergency teams had a lot of work. There were a total of 130 incidents, the majority due to landslides and dragging of material on public roads (36), but also faults in public lighting (20), faults in electrical wiring (12), problems in the sewage system (12) and falls of trees and branches (12). There were also assists due to falling rubble, breakdowns at traffic lights and puddles. The City Council services collaborated in the drainage of water from seven homes and a social premises.
The most notable episode occurred last night, after 9:00 p.m., when the Local Police closed a section of Islas Canarias Avenue to traffic and had to interrupt the tram when the roof of an abandoned house collapsed. Operators were working last night to restore traffic.
To the suspension of all the acts in the Archipelago due to the maximum alert for the tropical storm, the theoretical entrance exams in the Civil Guard in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Some 450 candidates were left without testing as a result of heavy rainfall.
Those controlled reported that Eurocontrol activated the ‘Rate’ zero at the Tenerife North airport in the early afternoon due to rain and visibility, which means that no flight can take off to this destination. In total, 101 flights were canceled and 11 diverted.
