What should visitors to southern El Hierro expect?
Stones and earth lie on the HI-4 between kilometre 18 and La Restinga, broadcaster RTVC reported on 2 November 2026. The report does not say whether the road is fully closed or partly open.
Anyone driving a hire car to La Restinga should expect delays. RTVC gave no time for clearing the road, so the safest plan is to allow extra time.
La Restinga belongs to the municipality of El Pinar, and the report says power failed there too. If you have booked accommodation in the village, ask your host whether supply is back.
The HI-1 is also affected, around La Llanía. Drivers heading north or to the island capital should expect obstacles there and take it slowly.
Which roads and places are affected?
RTVC names two roads: the HI-4 from kilometre 18 to La Restinga, and the HI-1 near La Llanía. Both reports went to the Servicio de Carreteras (the island roads service) and to the Guardia Civil.
According to the report, the authorities are coordinating the work needed to keep road users safe. It does not say how many vehicles were affected or whether anyone was hurt.
The Garoé and Julan visitor centres closed as a precaution because of the poor weather. No reopening date was given.
If you planned to visit either centre, put it off. There is no official word yet on opening.
Where did the power fail, and for how long?
Power failed in the Los Llanos zone and the village of La Restinga, RTVC said on 2 November 2026. The faults went to Endesa's breakdown service and to the firm Juan Padrón S.L., which are to restore supply.
The number of customers affected was not published. The report also gives no details on how long the cuts lasted or whether supply has returned.
El Hierro has its own grid, separate from the mainland, fed by hydro and wind power at the Gorona del Viento plant and by diesel generators. Figures from the Canary Islands statistics office ISTAC, reported by RTVC in August 2025, put the renewable share at an average of 43.7% in 2024.
La Palma, the next highest island, reached around 9%, according to that report. The report named no cause for the current outages.
An Endesa notice of 29 December 2025 shows how hard parts of the grid are to reach. It described a helicopter lifting away an inaccessible transformer house on El Hierro.
Is this new for El Hierro this autumn?
On 22 October 2026, a large boulder, gravel and mud blocked the entrance to the Roquillos tunnel on the HI-5, on the La Frontera side, RTVC reported. Traffic then ran on one lane in turns, and the authorities urged maximum caution between La Frontera and Valverde.
The tunnel is the main link between those two places. The same day, the shrine of the Virgen de los Reyes also stayed shut because access was unsafe.
Rockfalls and fallen branches also hit the HI-1 between La Llanía and La Candelaria then. In late March 2026, the Cabildo (island government) closed roads and tracks during storm Therese and later lifted its emergency plan.
It is not confirmed whether the Cabildo has activated the emergency plan this time. In May 2026 it also had work done on the slope at the Camino de La Peña by the tunnel, with temporary closures from 11 to 13 May.
During tropical storm Hermine in September 2022, El Hierro was the last island under alert, still on 27 September 2022, RTVC said. That shows how vulnerable the roads are in prolonged rain.
Who decides on alert levels and closures?
The Canary Islands government, through its emergency services and civil protection, issues pre-alerts and alerts. They rest on the Canarian emergency plan for adverse weather (PEFMA), according to research into earlier storms.
The island government itself runs the Cabildo roads service. It clears the roads and coordinates with councils and police through CECOPIN.
We could not establish which warning level the state weather agency AEMET issued for El Hierro on 2 and 3 November 2026. RTVC gave no rainfall figures for El Hierro.
The same report says La Palma was on the highest alert, with 62 litres per square metre in one hour. That concerns La Palma, not El Hierro.
Nothing is confirmed for the coming days, neither opening times nor forecasts. For current information, check the Cabildo de El Hierro road reports, the AEMET warnings and Endesa's outage page.