A year ago to date, George Mifsud went to sleep after a busy day harvesting his crops at his family’s Fomm ir-Riħ fields. He woke up the next morning to find half his greenhouses destroyed as Malta was hit by the mother of all storms.

“Six months’ work were gone in an instant. The damage that day was unimaginable,” Mr Mifsud recalled.

The farmer, who has been working the fields since he was a young boy, having taken over from his father and grandfather, says he had never seen anything like the February 2019 storm.

The repercussions from the storm are still being felt by those impacted, especially farmers, who say they are yet have to receive promised compensation to repair the damage.

Hurricane-level gusts of wind lasted throughout the weekend of February 23 and 24 last year, leaving dozens of trees uprooted, walls toppled, and seafronts flooded as people were urged to stay indoors. A number of residents had to be evacuated from their homes while several cars were destroyed as underground garages flooded.

Farmers were among the worst hit, with their losses amounting to tens of thousands of euros.

Two full-time farmers, George Mifsud and Marjan Cini, recall the feeling of helplessness they experienced when the winds started picking up during the night before the storm hit.

At that point they were already fearing the worst and were terrified the thousands of euros invested over months of work would all be gone by morning. 

Mr Cini said while he had grown accustomed to strong winds since his fields are located in Mellieħa, last year’s gusts were unprecedented.

“Every year there is that one big storm that causes damage. But last year’s winds were coming from a different direction and were much stronger.

“We were not prepared for such a gregale (grigalata),” he said.

Both farmers admit they remain to this day terrified of storms, fearing a repeat of the damage.

Some of their greenhouses, they said, have yet to be repaired and so serve as a daily reminder of the freak storm.

Where is the compensation?

In June, the government had announced that more than €3 million in national funds had been allocated to help cover the cost of damage caused to farms during February’s storm.

While farmers have started receiving letters telling them their application for their share of the funds had been accepted, both Mr Mifsud and Mr Cini said they had yet to be compensated.

Questions sent to the Agriculture Ministry on when the funds would be handed to the farms have remained unanswered despite reminders.

The head of lobby group Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi Malcolm Borg said the storm also confirmed the resilience of farmers, despite the challenges they faced.

“We need to keep in mind that farmers don’t have insurance because the risks are too high. They go to bed thinking their livelihood is safe only to wake up and find everything has been destroyed and they have lost thousands of euros overnight.”

“Few people appreciate this struggle. Farmers rarely complain and so, unfortunately, their problems are easily forgotten,” Mr Borg said.

‘I had to scrap my car’

Residents who live on the Vittoriosa shoreline had to scrap their cars after the storm as their vehicles sustained too much damage when their garage was flooded.

One resident, Wesley, told The Sunday Times of Malta his car had been damaged beyond repair and so he had no option but to scrap it.

He is one of about 30 residents at an apartment complex whose car was submerged in water during the storm.

“There was nothing much we could do since the insurance said it was an Act of God, meaning we received no money, and there was too much that needed to be repaired,” he said.

The complex, St Angelo Mansions, is situated on the shoreline and apart from the garage, a number of apartments had also flooded as the strong waves bashed the building.

People were very scared – rescuer

One of the Civil Protection Department’s first responders described how, despite being in the job for some 14 years, last February’s storm was one of the worst he had ever seen. He could only remember about three other times when such violent storms had hit.

He was stunned with the number of trees which had been knocked down.

While many associated the destruction with low-lying areas close to the sea, the responder said localities like Naxxar, Rabat and Għargħur actually sustained more damage because of the strong winds.

“There wasn’t much rain, it was actually the winds that were a problem during that storm so the higher up a place, the more damage there was,” the first responder recalled.

While the firefighters, who were all called in to work during the storm, were trained to handle such cases, the majority of people had rarely experienced such harsh weather and so panic had ensued.

“A few days before the storm, people had been injured because of trees coming down on their cars and so, understandably, a lot of people were very scared.

“We were flooded with calls that day and we knew that people were panicking.”

How bad was it?

Fastest gusts of wind: 133km/h [The Beaufort Scale classifies winds faster than 118km/h as Force 12, or hurricane level.]
Highest hourly average wind speed: 98km/h
Precipitation: 47.6mm 
Lowest temperature: 1.7°C
Highest temperature: 11.3°C