The moment infrastructure becomes personal

Last week, Storm Claudia swept through Málaga province. The headlines focused on reservoir levels ticking up after a brutal summer. That is the hopeful story.

The other story is less photogenic: power cuts, mobile networks overwhelmed, and fiber connections dropping during the workday.

If you were on a client call when it happened, you already know which story matters more.

What actually happened

Between 13–17 November, Claudia brought heavy rain bands across Andalucía. Reservoirs in parts of the region recovered after months of drought. Local radio stopped talking about water cuts and started celebrating recovery.

Simultaneously, connectivity failed in pockets across the coast. Not everywhere. Not all day. But enough that anyone relying on a single provider for work found themselves scrambling.

The storm exposed something most newcomers miss: the Costa's infrastructure was not designed for the current load. Water systems are built for smaller populations. Power grids that handle sunshine better than sustained rain. Mobile networks buckle when everyone switches from fiber to 4G at once.

Claudia topped up the tank. It did not rebuild the plumbing.

You moved here for quality of life. Quality of life requires systems that work when conditions get difficult.

The question is not whether Claudia caused damage. For most areas, it did not. The question is what your actual backup plan looks like when:

If your answer is "hope it doesn't happen," you are building your remote work life on a single point of failure.

The 48-hour fallback stack

This is the setup that works when your primary connection fails.

Layer 1: Backup SIM from a different network

Most fiber outages affect one provider's infrastructure. Mobile networks rarely fail simultaneously. If your primary SIM is Movistar, keep a secondary from Orange or Vodafone. Cost: €15–20/month for a basic data plan that sits dormant until you need it.

Layer 2: Mobile hotspot device with external antenna

Your phone's hotspot works, but a dedicated device with an external antenna pulls a stronger signal in weak coverage areas. Huawei 4G routers cost €60–80 and require an external antenna for another €30. Keep it charged and tested.

Layer 3: Know your nearest coworking with backup power

Centro House Marbella and WeCowork both advertise generator backup. Have their addresses and opening hours saved. The drive from Nueva Andalucía to Centro House is 12 minutes without traffic. That is your emergency commute.

Layer 4: Offline work protocol

Identify which tasks you can do without connectivity. Have local copies of critical documents. When everything fails, you shift to offline work for two hours instead of staring at your router lights.

None of this is glamorous. All of it prevents you from sending the 2 pm email to your VP explaining why you missed the quarterly review.

While the storm was filling reservoirs, Brookfield quietly listed Hotel Benalma in Benalmádena for around €80 million.

Brookfield is not a local family selling a beachfront hotel. They are a global asset manager with over €200 billion under management. They bought this property in 2022, refurbished it, and now want to crystallise the gain.

What does this tell you?

Major institutional money still believes the Costa is worth holding and improving. They are not fleeing. They are rotating capital—selling one asset to redeploy into others. The fact that they expect to sell at €80 million after buying for roughly half that suggests the fundamentals remain attractive to serious investors.

For residents, this is background noise with one useful signal: the coast is not collapsing. It is repricing. Towns that handle infrastructure pressure well will capture the next wave of investment. Towns that lurch from crisis to crisis will see capital flow elsewhere.

The hotel sale is not your problem. The infrastructure question is.

Over the next 12 months, track three things:

1. Water projects that move from announcement to contract

Your ayuntamiento — town hall — may have announced desalination or pipe upgrades. Watch whether tenders get awarded and work actually starts. Press releases mean nothing. Diggers mean everything.

2. How your town handles the next weather event

Did they implement a clear communications protocol? Did services recover quickly? Or was it improvised chaos with conflicting information? The pattern reveals whether your municipality operates like a system or reacts like a surprised family.

3. Whether the Hotel Benalma sale clears near the €80 million guide

If it trades quickly at that price, the Costa's reputation with institutional capital remains strong. If it sticks or sells at a significant discount, we are closer to a cycle peak than agents want to admit.

You do not need to track these obsessively. Check quarterly. The trends will be obvious.

embalse — reservoir
corte de luz — power cut
cobertura móvil — mobile coverage

WaypointSur is going to keep connecting dots like this: storms, sales, budgets, and what they mean for daily life.

The Costa del Sol is evolving. Some municipalities are investing ahead of pressure. Others are hoping the old pattern returns. Understanding which is which is the difference between building a life here and improvising one.

This week, test your backup stack. Reply BACKUP if you want my one-page storm-resilience checklist with specific equipment links and coworking backup options by town.

Not bad for a Monday — A. and the incredibly hermosos WayPoint Sur team

With WaypointSur, you can always expect plain-English guidance to land, settle, and thrive on Spain's Costa del Sol—homes, schools, healthcare, visas, taxes, work, and daily life.  
Made Mostly Under the Costa del Sol Sun. 💛