MADRID (AP) – The Spanish capital of Madrid is still trying to get back on its feet after a 50-year record snowfall that paralyzed large parts of central Spain and hampered the delivery of coronavirus vaccines.
The snowstorm has dumped more than 50 inches of snow in some areas, and a cold front has turned heaps of fluffy white into sheets of ice and crusty drifts. At least 700 roads were still not clear, half of which are unsuitable for driving without chains.
According to the national AEMET weather agency, the temperature would drop to minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) in a large part of the country later Monday, according to the national AEMET weather agency.
“We have some very complicated days ahead until the cold moment disappears,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a news conference on television. “It is necessary to postpone movements that can be avoided for safety and not to interrupt the works in the road network.”
A new batch of 350,000 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine arrived at half a dozen Spanish airports on Monday, but the doses destined for Madrid had to be diverted to the northern city of Vitoria. Authorities said police escorts would help the vaccines through the snow-covered streets and highways.
After delays during the new year, health authorities in Spain hoped to accelerate vaccination nationwide this week. Just over 37% of the nearly 750,000 doses received by Spain were distributed by Friday. Health workers received vaccinations in Madrid on Monday, despite the massive clearing of the snow.
Storm Filomena killed four people and dropped snow that trapped more than 1,500 people in their vehicles, some up to 24 hours. It has meanwhile moved eastwards.
In Madrid, civil protection and military battalions, aided by snowplows and bulldozers, are succeeding in clearing lanes for ambulances and emergency vehicles. Nevertheless, many of the city’s services remained closed on Monday, including the main wholesale market, although some supermarkets and newspapers opened for the first time in three days.
Residents, some with cuttings and walking sticks, moved to subway stations with icy snow, the only viable way to travel with work. But this led to overcrowding in train carriages where social distance was impossible. Commuter trains in Madrid and the motorway between Barcelona and Madrid resumed later Monday.
The Spanish capital’s airport, which has been closed since Friday night, had a dozen flights take off or land on Monday.
The slow return to normalcy was a relief for Alba Martínez, a nurse who spent six shifts minus the occasional nap during a snowstorm.
The 30-hour snowstorm prevented her colleagues from reaching their hospital in northern Madrid. Martínez was only replaced on Sunday afternoon when a volunteer 4×4 vehicle brought reinforcements and sent her home.
‘The staff themselves were organized in messages to find out how they could change shifts. But we feared that there would be no more food that some patients needed, ‘she says, adding that the situation in intensive care units with COVID-19 patients was even more difficult for her colleagues.
Martínez asked himself why authorities did not take stock before the storm and put staff in nearby hotels.
‘The logical thing would have been to anticipate the situation, because all the warnings were there. But they did not, ‘she said.
Schools were closed for the week in Madrid.