MADRID (AP) – The Spanish capital, Madrid, was still trying to recover on Monday after a record 50-year snowfall that paralyzed large parts of central Spain and prevented the delivery of coronavirus vaccines.
The blizzard threw over 50 centimeters (20 inches) of snow in some areas and a cold front turned that fluffy snow into ice sheets and crusted drift. At least 700 roads were still not clear enough to run without chains.
Temperatures were expected to drop to minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) in a large area of the country on Monday, according to the national weather agency AEMET, prompting authorities to urge people to be cautious.
“We have a few very complicated days ahead until the cold calm disappears,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a televised news conference. “It is necessary to postpone any movement that can be avoided, for safety reasons and in order not to interrupt the work on the road network.”
A new batch of 350,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which Spain expected, reached half a dozen airports on Monday, but doses destined for Madrid had to be redirected to the northern city of Vitoria.
The representative of the central government in Madrid, José Manuel Franco, told Onda Cero radio that the pharmaceutical company is working hard to ensure that the capital’s doses reach the surface in a logistics center. Authorities said earlier that police escorts would help vaccines cross snow-clogged streets and highways.
In Madrid, civil and military protection battalions, aided by snow plows and bulldozers, managed to clear the lanes for ambulances and emergency vehicles. However, much of the city’s main services remained closed on Monday, including the main wholesale market, although some supermarkets and newsagents opened for the first time in three days.
Residents, some with spikes and hiking poles, carefully tried to make their way through the frozen snow before disappearing into subway stations.
The metro system has become the only viable way to commute to work, leading to overcrowding scenes in train cars where it was impossible to maintain social distance. Madrid commuter trains and the high-speed railway between Barcelona and Madrid will resume on Monday, the national railway company Renfe said.
The airport, which had been closed since Friday night, saw a dozen flights take off or land on Monday and was expected to take off until full operations.
Schools were closed on Monday in the regions of Castilla La Mancha, Madrid and many other areas.
Storm Filomena left four people dead and trapped more than 1,500 people in their vehicles, some of them for up to 24 hours. He has since moved east.