The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León, signed this Tuesday the decree activating the PEMU, Municipal Emergency Plan. The activation has been decreed in alert mode due to the Atlantic storm Charles, the third of great impact this season, and the indications from the Directorate General of Emergencies of the Government of the Canary Islands.
The mayor, along with the councilor for Security and Emergencies, Kevin Cortés, has already deployed a device that is carrying out preventive work in areas sensitive to flooding in the capital of Lanzarote. The Arrecife City Council is directly monitoring coastal phenomena, winds, and rain.
The mayor of Arrecife signed this activation on Tuesday, November 10, and assigned a standby team of personnel to assist the population in case of rain, with episodes of intense winds, waves, and rain that could occur this afternoon and evening in Lanzarote. The City Council informs citizens that with the activation of the PEMU, they are asked to avoid parking vehicles in areas sensitive to flooding due to rain.
The decision of the Government of the Canary Islands has been made taking into account the information provided by the State Meteorological Agency and other available sources, and in application of the Specific Emergency Plan of the Canary Islands for Risks of Adverse Meteorological Phenomena (PEFMA), probable incidents are forecast on all islands of the Canary Archipelago.
Given this situation, following the protocol, Mayor Yonathan de León decreed the PEMU in ALERT mode, which allows for the assignment of standby teams to assist the population if possible. This standby team, in accordance with the municipal protocol for PEMU activation, is made up of personnel from the Local Police, Civil Protection, and staff from the Public Works, Mobility, and Transport departments, among others.
From the Department of Security and Emergencies, led by councilman Kevin Cortés, Civil Protection personnel assigned to cover sensitive areas of the city prone to flooding from rain are already in place preventively, given that the city of Arrecife is located at the natural mouth of the waters that can be carried from the ravines bordering Montaña Mina, Zonzamas, and Maneje, which, as they are not channeled, are what can mostly cause floods in the city center when the waters from these intense rains are carried seeking their natural outlet to the sea. As is known, Arrecife was founded as a port and city next to the tide, at sea level, and effects from strong waves are predicted.
From the Department of Public Works, under the direct leadership of the mayor, Yonathan de León, several personnel have been deployed to install protective barriers in the area of the storm drains, whose manholes are raised to facilitate greater drainage, in those sensitive areas of the city, whose streets are usually at the same level as the sea. These are preventive measures that have been implemented in this term and have contributed to minimizing the effects of intense rains in previous alert episodes.
Avoid parking vehicles in flood-prone areas
From the Local Police of Arrecife, different streets prone to flooding have already been cordoned off this midday. Likewise, the Department of Mobility and Transport, led by councilman Mario González Altube, has placed barriers to redirect traffic in those streets sensitive to flooding episodes due to rain—specified in the content of the Arrecife Emergency Plan—such as Portugal Street, Doctor Fleming Street (both in the La Verga neighborhood), or El Antonio Street, in the Titerroy neighborhood, near the Insular School of Languages, a street bordering one of the sides of the Lanzarote Sports City, or the area of the San Ginés Fishermen's Guild and the Cate next to the Police Station. Works for the new rainwater network are underway on Vía Medular.
The mayor Yonathan de León reminds residents that, in emergency situations, they should call 112 and from this emergency center, Civil Protection, Local Police, and personnel from the Public Works Department of the City Council will be activated, if necessary in this city.
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