He was clinging to a piece of the boat for seven hours.

The fisherman who was shipwrecked by the force of the storm that broke out in Formentera spent seven hours adrift clinging to a piece of wood from his boat. “I didn’t think I was going to make it back to land alive,” said Xicu Torres Mayans when he was finally able to disembark on the island after being rescued. The boat was smashed into a thousand pieces as a result of the intensity of the winds, which suddenly reached 100 kilometres per hour. The fisherman had gone out to fish in the morning on the boat when the storm hit him unexpectedly.

The president of the Formentera Fishermen’s Association, Iván Pérez, explained to IB3 that contact with him was lost early in the morning, when the storm hit the coast of Formentera. Various rescue teams spent the whole day looking for any sign of the missing man by sea and also by air with aerial means. He was finally located at around 5:00 p.m. far from the coast after those agonising seven hours clinging to a piece of the boat.

The president of the island’s fishermen explained that the fisherman saw the plane that was looking for him on two occasions and also saw a sailboat approaching the area, but he began to hope that he could be rescued when he began to see smaller boats in the area. One of these was the one that finally managed to rescue him and take him to land. The boats that had gone out to look for clues began to hope that they would find him alive when, during the search, they saw some pieces of the boat, such as the rudder, which had been practically disintegrated by the force of the wind.

The panorama that the island presents today, after the passage of a hurricane-force DANA, is devastating and at this moment an assessment of the damage is being made, which is considerable. The aerial images show sailboats stranded against the coast, damage to the roofs of some restaurants in the area and palm trees falling from other trees pushed by the force of the wind.

An estimated 40 boats have been seriously damaged off the coast of Formentera. The most serious incident occurred in Cala Saona, where nine Italian tourists had to be rescued after their sailboat crashed into the rocks. Two of them were seriously injured.

The Balearic Islands are on red alert for rain and incidents have occurred on all the islands, although the largest amounts of rain, which were expected this morning, have been in the sea, which has prevented more serious problems. In any case, the DANA has already left 150 litres in Pollença, in the north of Mallorca, where a strong storm occurred at 7am. It is estimated that, in 24 hours, more than 18,000 lightning bolts have fallen on the archipelago. In Sóller, the torrents have overflowed, coming down from the mountain with unusual force, which has forced 10 people to evacuate their homes.

There have been incidents with the train service, as one of the railways has been blocked near Petra and 29 passengers have had to be rescued. Palma airport is experiencing another day of widespread delays and flight cancellations this Thursday due to the rain and storms caused by the DANA. The delays have started from early in the morning and there have also been some 30 flight cancellations so far, precisely on a day of maximum traffic with some 1,500 operations scheduled for the whole day. Some companies are readjusting their schedules, taking into account that the storms are not only affecting the Balearic Islands and the Peninsula, but also Europe. On Wednesday there were around fifty cancellations at the three airports.

The emergency services have declared a red alert in some parts of the islands. The forecast for the evolution of the DANA is difficult and the critical hours will be until three in the afternoon. All the festive activities planned for this day have been suspended and the Government asks the population to be prudent and take extreme precautions, avoiding outdoor activities, especially in coastal areas.