Spain braces for further storms after weekend destruction

The north of Spain is again bracing itself for bad weather following the storms which caused widespread damage along the coast on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Police and rescue services are still searching for a 15-year-old boy who was swept out to sea by massive waves as he was cycling on Sunday afternoon in the town of Foz in the region of Galicia in northwest Spain. Although there have been no further reported casualties, the waves and the high winds have caused large amounts of material damage, especially in the region of Gipuzkoa. The towns of San Sebastian, Irun, Zarautz and Deba all felt the full force of the sea with roads and maritime walkways washed away, while flood waters even reached into the old town in San Sebastian flooding restaurants and bars. Residents have begun the cleanup operation but have been told in most cases to wait until insurance inspectors have seen their properties before starting work on repairing the damage. However, following a brief respite the bad weather has now returned with 30 provinces and 14 communities placed on high levels of alert with winds of 90km/h and waves of up to 8 meters in height predicted in coastal regions. Galicia is on orange alert, while further east the community of Asturias is also on orange alert, the same as the Basque Region, where wind of up to gale force 8 are predicted to hit. This new storm has been accompanied by a drop in temperature with snow also predicted across the mountains of northern Spain, where the snowline is falling as low as 600 meters. Indeed the northern city of Burgos woke up to a blanket of snow, while snow began to fall in the Spanish capital city, Madrid in mid-morning, although that will cause little more than the usual delays to traffic. Meanwhile in the Picos de Europa, snowfalls of seven centimeters have already been reported and similar levels are predicted for nearly all of the high areas in the north of the country and the region of Castilla-Leon has been placed in yellow alert in the expectation of around 4 centimeters of snow and sub-zero temperatures. The rest of Spain is expected to receive heavy rainfall, while some coastal areas in the south and around the Canary Islands are on alert for predicted strong winds.