COLD SPELL WREAKS HAVOC ALL OVER SPAIN

Last week's cold spell was the worst for 20 years, and although the weather was better on the Costa del Sol than in other parts of Spain night-time temperatures dropped to minus 9ºC in some rural areas and snow fell in places such as Alicante, Almería, Granada, Nerja and Melilla. Many drivers were forced to spend the night in their cars because of the bad conditions, among them former Mayor of Marbella Julián Muñoz and his partner, singer Isabel Pantoja, who were travelling between Granada and Málaga and who had to sleep in the car park of a bar. It didn't snow in Ronda, where temperatures dropped to minus 8ºC at night and barely reached 1ºC during the day, but some snow fell in the nearby villages of Montejaque and Benaoján, and many people living in the countryside near Antequera suffered burst pipes after the thermometers plummeted to -9ºC on Wednesday night. It was so cold in villages such as Mijas and Gaucín that the water in the fountains froze and created icicles. The low temperatures and biting winds resulted in a record level of electricity consumption, and some areas suffered power cuts because of the unprecedented strain on resources. Three people have died so far, all in the north of Spain. A young man who had been missing since last Monday was found dead in a gully in S'Aranella de Cadaqués, Gerona. A homeless person died of hypothermia last Tuesday in Vendrell, Tarragona, and a woman was killed in Aguilar de Campoo, Palencia, when the façade of a house fell on her. The accident was caused by the weight of the snow on the roof. The Coodinator of the Farmers and Livestock Breeders' Associations said on Saturday that the cold weather had destroyed nearly 90% of the crops from Barcelona down to Granada. The potato crop in Malaga has been lost completely, while between 20% and 50% of other crops such as beet, cereals, pepper, tomatoes, beans, cucumber and marrow may be saved if the cold weather eases soon. The hardy olive is the only crop that has been unaffected so far. The Coordinator said economic losses would be of "historical dimensions". A spokesman admitted total losses were still difficult to quantify but he said at least 60,000 farmers in the so-called Mediterranean arc had been affected. He also noted that around 100,000 seasonal jobs would be lost because there were hardly any crops to harvest. Schoolchildren across the north of Spain have been enjoying enforced holidays because of the snow while the tow truck drivers called off the strike they had planned for last week, in view of the number of emergencies they would have to attend to. They have postponed the strike until Easter week. Meanwhile, the weathermen say temperatures won't be so low now but the cold spell will be with us until at least mid-week. 1. A man tries to clear a path outside his home in Reinosa, Cantabira province 2. The thermometer registers minus 5ºC in Granada 3. The cold destroys crops from Barcelona to the Strait