Storms Cause Havoc in Spain

Tourist resorts on Spain's east coast began an emergency operation yesterday to reinstate dozens of beaches after violent storms over the past few days washed away tonnes of sand.

Meanwhile, authorities in Barcelona had to dispose of a huge dead whale that was washed into the city's harbour by the storms.

Truckloads of sand were brought to beaches in Barcelona and the popular resorts of Cambrils and Gandia in the south.

With early-season tourists, many of them British, already arriving, some local authorities feared that beaches might not be ready for them.

Environmentalists warned that excessive building has so disturbed the natural balance of Spain's eastern seaboard that many beaches could disappear completely.

Barcelona officials called on the government to declare a state of emergency along the coast and asked for state funds to help get its beaches ready by June.

They said huge swaths of sand had disappeared into "a black hole" from the city's beaches. "In some parts of the coast we have lost up to 20 metres of beach," Jorge Guillen, a scientist at Barcelona's marine sciences institute, said.

In Benicassim, further south, up to 30 metres of beach disappeared, according to a local councillor.

Torrential downpours and rough seas also destroyed beaches in Valencia where costly regeneration schemes concluded only last week.

In a recent report Greenpeace said the intensive building of maritime boulevards, marinas and barriers was changing the shape of the coastline as the sand was washed off many beaches.