MADRID (AP) – The Spanish capital Madrid was still trying to get going on Monday after a 50-year record snowfall paralyzed large parts of central Spain and hampered the delivery of coronavirus vaccines.
The blizzard threw more than 50 inches of snow in some areas, and a cold front turned that fluffy snow into ice shelves and crusty dust. At least 700 roads weren’t clear enough to drive without chains.
According to the national weather agency AEMET, temperatures would drop to minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) later on Monday in much of the country, prompting authorities to urge people to exercise caution.
“We have some very complicated days ahead of us until the cold snap subsides,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said at a televised press conference. “It is necessary to postpone any avoidable movement, for safety and not to interrupt works in the road network.”
A new batch of 350,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine that Spain was expecting arrived at half a dozen airports on Monday, but the doses destined for Madrid had to be diverted 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 was working hard to ensure that the doses from the capital get above ground to a logistics center. Authorities previously said police escorts would help the vaccines get through the snow-clogged streets and highways.
In Madrid, civil defense and military battalions, aided by snowplows and bulldozers, cleared lanes for ambulances and emergency vehicles. Still, many of the city’s main services remained closed Monday, including the main wholesale market, although some supermarkets and newsstands opened for the first time in three days.
Residents, some with crampons and walking poles, cautiously tried to navigate icy snow before disappearing into metro stations.
The underground train system has become the only viable way to commute to work, leading to scenes of overcrowding in railroad cars where it was impossible to maintain social distance. Shuttle trains in Madrid and the high-speed train between Barcelona and Madrid will resume later Monday, the national railway company Renfe said.
The airport, which had been closed since Friday evening, saw a dozen flights take off or land on Monday and expected to start flying at full speed.
Schools were closed Monday in the regions of Castilla La Mancha, Madrid and many other areas.
Storm Filomena left four people dead and more than 1,500 people in their vehicles, some of them up to 24 hours. It has since moved east.