The weather of the first full weekend of the year appears to have caused considerable damage to on-land infrastructure at the Ċirkewwa Marine Park and Ferry terminal nearby.
Beaufort Force 8 and 9 winds with wind gusts approaching Force 10 and over 4 meters waves caused so much damage, that cars located over 20m away from the shallow shoreline and behind a second sea-wall were also damaged as reported through images that spread like wildfire on social media and shared as well by multiple news portals – for example https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/gale-force-winds-wreak-havoc-across-malta-cars-damaged.1076793 and https://www.tiktok.com/@lovinmaltaofficial/video/7321350984578501920
@lovinmaltaofficial Cars parked in Ċirkewwa last night were not spared by the destructive storm that hit the islands this weekend. Footage sent to Lovin Malta by @JaerMertens shows a slew of damaged and battered vehicles parked in the area overnight. One particular clip shows a car with its windscreen completely bashed, its right-side window cracked open, its doors displaced, and the whole front of the vehicle crushed. “It wasn’t just the strong winds which caused the damage, but also the roaring waves from behind the car park which were crashing against the vehicles”, a Police spokesperson told Lovin Malta. Officers on site further noticed that “strong currents had displaced some of the vehicles, moving them from their original parking spot”. On Friday, the Meteorological Office warned of gale-force winds over the weekend. What do you make of this? Sound off in the comments
♬ original sound – Lovin Malta
Divers are expected to be able to dive safely at the site on Wednesday 10 January. We’re eager to hear if they will report any changes underwater in the multiple underwater scenic spots but also especially to the P29 Patrol boat and the Tug Boat Rożi wrecks which probably would have taken the full blast of the storm system which just passed.
Persons regularly at Ċirkewwa spoken to by divinginfo.mt stated that such devastation on land has not been seen in many, many years.
As of Tuesday morning, it is known that the onsite bathroom facilities are also partly out of order due to the damage and some (if not most) of the railings for divers onsite have been washed away. Caution is suggested to be taken due to lack of railings at slippery entrances. Videos showed as well that other lighting, drainage and other small infrastructure was damaged or torn away, including fences which were just renovated with sturdier fencing over the last few years.
Authorities are informed of the damages that occurred and are expected to be working on doing the necessary repairs as early as possible.
