Water, water everywhere....

and not a drop to drink! Well, we have now but not this morning.

Went for a shower this morning to find no water in the tap, tried the outside tap, direct from the spring, and this was also dry. I rang Connie and Micha to see if they knew anything and apparently there had been a landslide which had damaged or ripped out the water pipe.

John, Micha, Mariano and Antonio went up to look at the problem - a fuente (spring) which has been dry for about 40 years has started flowing again because of all the rain - yes it's still raining, yesterday was one of the few dry, sunny days recently. The spring comes out up above Pepe and Miguels house/ruin and it has washed itself a river taking everything in its path....land, trees, stone walls all gone downhill. When it got to the acequia which also has the water pipe alongside, that went too. It's impossible to see whether the pipe has been ripped out or is just squashed as there are tons of mud and stuff on top.

Everyone took up all they had of the right size pipe, taps and junctions to see if it could be by-passed. We had enough pipe and a tap but not a junction, Micha - I think it was - had junctions too so the pipe has been cut and relaid up and around the main problem area, above a tree which looks like it will be the next thing to slide. Until it all dries out, it won't be possible to dig out and repair.

More pista news, the road to Yegen is blocked again by numerous rock falls and mudslides. I haven't been to look, but Mariano has taken lots of photos which I have yet to look at. The road down to Yator is blocked again, similar problems but also a wall is starting to collapse onto the track. There are lots of places where the edges are cracking - that's what started the last large collapse. Worryingly for Micha and Connie is that the pista adjoining their land also has developed a crack up the middle of the road. We are lucky because none of our stretch has steep drops at the edge, and that is where the problems are occurring.

The Cadiar to Torvizcon new €19 million road has been closed for safety reasons. That road is a bus route in from Granada and for the post office delivery apart from all other main delivery vehicles. The road over the Contraviesa was closed due to subsidence, until the Guardia realised there was no way out of the area. The top road to Trevelez was or is blocked by rockfalls at a village called Pitres. The road on the way out of Yegen has collaped and is only passable by one car at time - and that is a bus route to Valor and Ugijar and onto Almeria. The road from Berja down to Adra on the coast is closed due to a landslide. So basically this area is pretty much cut off - anyone got a helicopter??

We have one car here, but can't get it out. Connie and Micha have the same situation but we both have a car in Yator for shopping. Mariano is stranded yet again but comes out with either of us if he needs anything.

Jerez de la Frontera is completely cut off - the airport, train line and motorway are all flooded. For more local news look at

http://www.las-alpujarras.net/local-news/

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