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MADRID — Madrid’s mayor on Thursday referred to as on the central authorities to declare Spain’s capital a catastrophe zone, warning that the harm attributable to final weekend’s snowstorm would value not less than 1.4 billion euros, or $1.7 billion, to repair.
Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida informed a information convention that the catastrophe designation would launch emergency funds and make sure that “all the people who have suffered damages can be compensated as quickly as possible.”
Madrid has been struggling to reopen its streets to site visitors and clear the piles of snow, which lined the town on Friday and Saturday. The storm, named Filomena, brought the heaviest snowfall Madrid has seen in virtually 50 years, dropping greater than a foot and a half of snow on the 6.6 million individuals who reside within the metropolis and the encircling area.
On Thursday, metropolis corridor officers warned that it might take a number of extra days to clear all of the roads, the duty slowed by freezing climate situations which might be predicted to final till the center of subsequent week. Spain’s climate workplace forecast on Thursday that this 10-day interval of freezing temperatures can be the longest stretch of such climate to hit Madrid in 20 years.
Madrid’s airport was closed for a lot of the weekend and solely resumed its regular flights schedule on Thursday, whereas colleges and sports activities facilities are set to stay closed till Monday.
The snowfall additionally destroyed parks across the capital, with harm recorded for 11,000 of the 17,000 timber in Retiro Park, based on native authorities.
More than 700 troopers have been despatched to assist metropolis companies clear the snow in Madrid and the neighboring area of Castilla-La Mancha. Despite their efforts, 127 roads remained absolutely closed to site visitors on Thursday.
The storm introduced Madrid to a standstill, disrupting transport throughout the nation, simply as Spain was getting into its third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, Spain’s well being ministry recorded its highest variety of new instances for the reason that pandemic hit Spain final March. The nation’s Covid-19 death toll, greater than 53,000, is likely one of the highest in Europe.
The snow additionally interrupted the nation’s vaccination marketing campaign, which began in late December. In Madrid, many well being care employees have been pressured to work further shifts to cowl for colleagues who couldn’t attain their hospitals due to the snow and ice.
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