MADRID – The mayor of Madrid on Thursday called on the central government to declare the capital of Spain a disaster area, warning that the damage caused by last weekend’s snowstorm is at least 1.4 billion euros, or $ 1.7 billion, would cost to solve.
Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said at a news conference that the disaster would release emergency funds and ensure that “all the people who suffered damage can be compensated as quickly as possible.”
Madrid is struggling to reopen its streets to traffic and clear the piles of snow that covered the city on Friday and Saturday. The storm, named Filomena, caused the heaviest snowfall Madrid has seen in nearly 50 years, and it dropped more than a foot and a half of snow on the 6.6 million people living in the city and the surrounding region live.
On Thursday, city hall officials warned that it would take a few more days to clear all the roads. The task is being delayed by icy weather conditions that are expected to last until mid-next week. The weather office in Spain on Thursday predicted that this ten-day period of freezing would be the longest time of this weather to hit Madrid in two decades.
Madrid’s airport was closed for most of the weekend and only resumed its normal flight schedule on Thursday, while schools and sports centers will remain closed until Monday.
According to local authorities, the snowfall also destroyed parks around the capital, damaging 11,000 of the 17,000 trees in Retiro Park.
More than 700 soldiers have been sent to help city services clear the snow in Madrid and the neighboring region of Castilla-La Mancha. Despite their efforts, 127 roads remained completely closed to traffic on Thursday.
The storm brought Madrid to a standstill and disrupted transport across the country, just as Spain was entering its third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the Spanish Ministry of Health recorded its highest number of new cases since the pandemic hit in March last year. The country’s Covid-19 death toll, more than 53,000, is one of the highest in Europe.
The snow also disrupts the country’s vaccination campaign, which began in late December. In Madrid, many health workers were forced to work extra shifts to cover colleagues who could not reach their hospitals due to the snow and ice.