“The hailstones were the size of a ping-pong ball.” The storm that is causing intense rains in much of the country these days caused strong winds and precipitation in the form of hail on Monday night and throughout the early hours of the morning in the municipality of Almería of El Ejido, which also recorded considerable damage to the territory’s greenhouses, which constitute a fundamental element of the region’s economy. For the moment, the extent of the consequences has not been assessed.
Sources from 112 of Andalusia told EFE that the hailstorm began around ten thirty in the evening and that the single emergency number received at least fifty calls for incidents linked, mainly, to flooding in the basements of houses and garages. public roads. For its part, the El Ejido City Hall told EFE that it was carrying out an assessment of the damage caused by the hailstorm.
According to images shared on social networks, the large hailstones did not only cause damage to greenhouses: also to certain vehicles parked on the road. The mayor of the municipality, Francisco Góngora, indicated in an interview for the Canal Sur program Wake up Andalusia that they have “a lot of damage and very significant damage to hundreds of vehicles, public roads, sports centers, farms, industrial warehouses and houses.
The provincial secretary of COAG Almería, Andrés Góngora, also said that the damage was being assessed, while emphasizing that there is evidence of falling greenhouses and “a lot of broken plastic” throughout this area.
The provincial secretary of the UPA Almería, Francisca Iglesias, indicated that her organization is aware of the damage caused to the structure of many greenhouses, because “the hailstones were the size of a ping-pong ball.” “When a hailstorm of this type falls, it causes damage wherever it falls, in this case in the entire strip that goes from El Ejido to Almerimar,” added Iglesias, who also specifies that the assessment of the damage to these agricultural farms starts now. .
