Sharon the rain maker

Sharon has had a wet summer in Scotland and she has brought the rain back with her to the Campo.

“Everybody in Spain asked me to bring back some rain with me. But I never intended to bring back the rain that we have experienced in the past few days. In all the seven years I have lived here I have never known anything like it,” said Sharon.

Between September 12 and Monday, nearly half the annual rainfall for the region has fallen. In the Cartagena area, the downpour amounted to 264 liters per square meter and to get an idea of just how much that is, think of the big two-liter bottles of Coke or Fanta. So, 132 bottles worth have fallen for each little patch of land. Last year the total rainfall in Cartagena was only 600 liters.

“No wonder they had to call the army out,” said Sharon. The soldiers helped in rescue operations, including of children trapped on a school bus by the downpour. The impact over at Los Alcázares was particularly severe with two ramblas turning into raging rivers. Ramblas are river beds that are normally bone-dry. The area around Eroski, Cartagena, was deeply flooded. Residents of a Polaris World development were taken to a hotel for safety.

At Puerto de Mazarrón, which is built on a low-lying patch of sand by the sea, the rain flooded the town and the normally quiet rambla near El Alamilo was turned into a torrent. See the photo taken by our friend Viv who lives nearby. The Cartagena suburb of Los Dolores was particularly badly affected, with a rambla there filling to the brim and considerable flooding. One Campo resident said he had never seen the rambla near his house, which isn´t too far from our own home, so high. He even took a fishing rod down but that turned out to be a little to hopeful.