A carousel of storms subjected the Archipelago, 45 years ago, to a powerful episode of meteorological instability that left heavy rainfall, intense snowfall on the summits and serious damage to coastal areas due to the waves. The most extensive damage occurred in the port of Los Cristianos (Arona), where the onslaught of the sea destroyed the main dock, forcing the suspension of the ferry service at the southern dock for several days.
The sea took away 160 meters of the 200 meters of breakwater, in addition to five cars that were parked, the Gomera and Trasmediterránea Ferry booths where tickets were dispatched and the parking pergolas. Several pleasure boats ended up at the bottom of the dock. The Public Works technicians indicated that, if the sea had continued to beat the port, the dike would have completely broken.
The DIARIO DE AVISOS chronicle published on January 18, 1979 reported that “the scenes of desolation occurred mainly among the people of the sea, who could not believe the terrible effects of the sea on the port esplanade.”
The fishermen of Los Cristianos demanded “criminal actions against whomever it corresponds” for the destruction of the port and this was reported to the then civil governor, Luis Mardones, in a meeting held at the Casa del Mar in this coastal town, in which the mayor from Arona, José Morera Santana, expressed “the concern of the people of Los Cristianos” about the effects of the storm. The president of the Cabildo, Rafael Clavijo, toured the affected area and announced the first “urgent and extraordinary” credits destined for the reconstruction of the port.
The damage, quantified at more than 130 million pesetas, led the central government to declare the event “catastrophic”, a decision that meant enabling specific items charged to the state budgets. The director engineer of the Ports Administrative Commission traveled to the Island to inspect the damage. In the information published by this newspaper, the “heroic” behavior of Francisco Rodríguez, captain of the Benchijigua, and his crew were highlighted, who “removed the ship from the dock in a true display of competence and courage.” The chronicle indicates that “the sailors, with tears in their eyes, fought against the waves” and that it took the ship five hours to reach San Sebastián de La Gomera, “but they managed to save the ship from a sad fate.”
The storm that affected the Islands in the second half of August 1979 and that, in addition to rain and snow, generated gusts of wind of up to 190 kilometers per hour in the Tenerife peaks, remains in the memory of the population that lived through that episode. , caused by the entry of several fronts from the west and southwest, and the action of a North Pole trough. Its effects were also felt in basic services such as electricity supply. The entire south of Tenerife suffered power outages.
TORRENTIAL RAINS
In the case of the capital of Tenerife, the rainfall became torrential and produced shocking images such as the Barranco de Santos turned into a furious river, which forced the evacuation of the people who lived in its channel. Another of the images broadcast by the media was the flooded Church of La Concepción.
In an article by Manuel Ángel Pérez Cabello, published in Meteored (eltiempo.com), it is indicated that in the long week that the storm lasted, 1,600 liters per square meter were collected in the Caldera de Taburiente (La Palma), 957 in Izaña (mostly in the form of snow) and 700 in the midlands of Tenerife.
The article refers to the great snowfall that occurred on January 20, 1979 on the summits of Tenerife, Gran Canaria and La Palma, above 1,700 meters of altitude in the case of the first two islands and from 1,000 in the third, reaching up to 2.5 meters thick in some points.
