“The video of the boy in waist-deep water appeared on the French national channel, I don’t know how it got there, but everyone I know in Grenoble called me from France this morning to find out if he was still alive,” says Laurent, a surprised owner of a well-known French restaurant in one of the picturesque lanes that lead to the seafront of Sitges, on the south coast of Barcelona.
Images of certain areas of this elegant and tourist city flooded by water appeared yesterday afternoon in several national news programs – sometimes, as this journalist was able to verify, wrongly attributed to the devastation of DANA in Valencia – amplifying the destruction that did not deviate. of what usually happens when it rains torrentially in Sitges, something usual in autumn and spring.
There are also some videos of gigantic waves hitting houses on what appears to be a Mediterranean coastline. They are not from Sitges: here, despite the 98 liters per square meter collected in 24 hours, the sea remained relatively calm and without waves, causing few effects other than the flooding of the yacht club’s catamaran and scooter park , which was still closed because of the alerts.
The city perfectly resisted the ravages of the disturbances, which left nearly 200 liters per square meter of successive DANA in one week. The orography favors it, at least in the majority of neighborhoods where the more than 30,000 inhabitants of this residential city live, which ceases to be a city and becomes a high-end dormitory town, with the consequence of an increase in prices rents.
Streets like Espalter, Bassa Rodona or Rafael Llompard are in reality streams that channel large flows of rain towards the sea. “As cars cannot park there, the damage has been greatly minimized,” emphasizes Jesús, who lives in a low house in the historic center of Sitges. He assures that, despite the intense rains of the night and morning, his interior terrace “resisted well”.
Flooding at a street intersection in Terramar
The only serious effects, such as the spectacular flooding that appeared on television and was recorded by an amateur meteorologist in the Garraf region, occurred in the remote neighborhood of Terramar, 3.5 kilometers from the rock on which it is located in the center of the area. municipality. There, in what was for centuries orchards and vineyards on a flood plain, is a crossroads of several streets adjacent to the Me Sitges Terramar hotel which invariably floods with every disturbance of a certain magnitude, due, according to neighbors, with the gentle slope of its drains, a few meters from the sea.
In this case, given the quantities of water that fell, the crossing became a considerable pond and provided space for videos. “Yesterday I found myself with the car stuck; Water must have entered my engine while trying to cross,” says Xavier, who explains that he had to call the tow truck, which also failed to get through. Today, after the morning rains, less than those of yesterday Sunday afternoon, the street is already dry and Xavier withdraws his car.
A gray Volvo parked next to one of the neighborhood’s luxury homes was not so lucky, with prices in some cases reaching five million euros for undeveloped land. One of the many pine trees that line the streets of Terramar fell and burst its sidewalks with its roots.
“There were several who fell here,” says José, who explains that he was sent to repair the electricity in a flooded garage. “Water entered several parking lots in the area,” he adds. This journalist was able to see yesterday how firefighters drained the water with pumps in a large garage belonging to a luxury residence.
Some homes were also flooded, like Marta’s, located in one of the corners of the flooded area that appears in the videos. “Every time the intersection floods, the water comes into us and into the garage,” he said. He also reveals that they emptied the water with a pump and that “this morning the mayor came [Aurora Carbonell] and he promised us that he would solve the problem.
The overflowing stream and the isolated golf course
Finally, Marta reveals that some neighbors have told her that part of the problem “comes from the creek.” It refers to the stream of Sant Pere de Ribes, the town located five kilometers from Sitges, which collects the waters of its ravine and sends them towards the coast. According to this theory, part of the torrent would overflow towards Earthsea.
The river passes about 300 meters further south and is accessed by an internal path which leads, crossing the bed, to the Terramar golf club and the beaches of the old L’Atlántida nightclub, now in ruins. Only the first 100 meters of the trail are accessible, then, after a slight incline, the trail leads to a large water reservoir that carries the flow of the stream, which glides spectacularly overflowing with its brown water.
Both parts of the golf course, on either side of the road, as well as the entrance to the club parking lot, are inaccessible. Terramar Golf Club is isolated. After a few minutes, Florance, born in France but “resident in Sitges for 23 years”, arrives at the end point of the path. He came to take photos of the stream with its chocolate-colored water. “It’s more spectacular than during the storm of September 9,” he says. Soon other residents arrive, with their bikes or jogging, all with the intention of taking their photos, probably to share them on Instagram or X.
