Yes, it was mighty windy last night, nowhere more so than Granada and it not only caused material damage but at least one person was seriously injured.

The gale, known as Bernard, produced gusts of up to 70 kph, blew over trees or even ripped them out and shook the life out of large billboards.

In fact, the emergency call centre registered over 1,500 incidents from all over Andalucía.

Just the Policía Local in Motril received 70 calls between 17.30h and 19.30h from all over the city.

But the worse news was that of a 15-year-old, Polish girl ended up in the ICU of Hospital de Neurotraumatología, requiring operations on her spine and pelvis. Together with two other Polish tourists, they were hit by a falling branch on Cuesta Gomérez at the entrance to the Alhambra.

Consequently, the decision was taken to close down this monument at 19.32h to avoid further accidents there. The City Hall then ordered that all parks should be closed to the public, as well.

The city fire service were called out after masonry from Edificio Aliatar in the city centre fell away onto the pavement below.

Despite everything, Aeropuerto Federico García Lorca remained open the whole afternoon with flights in and out between Granada and Melilla, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona and Madrid.

What about down on the coast? The Motril fire service were called out several times over fallen branches; one call out was to Parque de las Américas. Apart from that, and after searching local websites for the Costa, there doesn’t seem to have been any other incidents.

(News/Noticias: Granada, Andalucia)