The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León, appreciates the great collaboration and support of the residents, personnel, and administrations that are collaborating in the pumping and cleaning tasks in the capital of Lanzarote, affected yesterday at noon by a downpour of heavy rains with nearly 70 liters per square meter.
Yonathan de León has been coordinating, since yesterday, the deployment with more than 100 personnel who are working uninterruptedly to assist the affected families and businesses, and the removal of the abundant mud that entered the city with the dragging of the rains from Montaña Mina and Zonzama. Torrential rains that were aggravated, in addition, with the precipitations that were also recorded in Arrecife after the displacement of the rains from the neighboring towns of Costa Teguise and Tahíche, the other municipality greatly affected, along with the capital of Lanzarote, by this downpour without the forecasts of the AEMet, due to its large volume, nor the mandatory alerts.
The mayor of Arrecife announced on Sunday morning, on the national news 24 hours of TVE, where he entered live from the La Vega neighborhood (one of those affected) that the City Council will request the "Declaration of Disaster Zone" for the city of Arrecife, to allow families and businesses to access a line of aid from public administrations that can compensate for the significant material damage to homes, commercial premises, and several public buildings. The mayor was able to see up close last night, in his visits to the families affected by the rains, that many have lost belongings in their homes, vehicles damaged by the flooding of garages, and loss of merchandise or damage to commercial premises, many of them located in working-class neighborhoods of the city.
Civil Protection of Arrecife, attached to the Department of Security and Emergencies of the City Council, led by Councilor Kevin Cortés, has detailed in a report that nearly 100 incidents have been registered in homes, premises, and public buildings (including the Police Station and the Cate- Center for Attention to Emigrants).
The mayor of Arrecife will soon approve, through the municipal bodies, the request for a declaration to be sent to the Delegation of the Government of the Canary Islands, so that Arrecife is included, by the Government of the Nation, through the Council of Ministers, among the areas to be declared as seriously affected by a civil protection emergency, which is usually known as 'Declaration of Disaster Zone'.
The technical coordinator of Civil Protection of Arrecife, an officer of the Local Police, has already prepared this mandatory report detailing the nearly 100 relevant incidents in the municipality of Arrecife, many of them flooded homes or garages in the neighborhoods of Argana Alta, Maneje, Titerroy, La Vega, and the Open Commercial Area of Arrecife, among other places.
In parallel, the different municipal areas are doing an inspection and collection of all the probable additional damages caused by these rains, whose Emergency was declared yesterday at 4:00 p.m., three hours after the first severe rains were recorded over several points of the island of Lanzarote. Now, from the City Council, the mayor specified this Sunday, an economic assessment of the same will be made.
This information that is going to be presented also includes the description of the repair of the damage, as well as the impact on municipal services and activities, among others. The mayor, in addition to the Government Delegation, will communicate this request to the Government of the Canary Islands so that it is supported.
Yonathan de León has been at the forefront of these deployments, which have been joined by the Councilor for Security and Emergencies, Kevin Cortés, and the chief officials of the Areas of Civil Protection, Local Police, and Public Works. During the afternoon, night, and early morning, the mayor has been present in the affected neighborhoods, and in these visits he has also been accompanied by the Councilor for Public Works of the Cabildo, Jacobo Medina, who has directly supervised the island roads and communicated with the capital of Lanzarote.
The mayor has been in permanent connection with the Councilor of the Security and Emergency Consortium of Lanzarote, Kiko Aparicio, and the general director of Emergencies of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Figuereo, to whom he thanks for the support and close collaboration.
The City Council of Arrecife has also had the support of other municipalities of Lanzarote, and Fuerteventura, to which the mayor thanks for this great predisposition.
Now, more than 100 personnel will continue in these next hours and days in the work to ensure that Arrecife is clean, and returns to normal. To all of them, the mayor thanks their great effort, work, and perseverance to achieve it as soon as possible.