“Where is the storm?” On the AP-7 highway, in Tarragona, thousands of vehicles, mainly trucks, were blocked due to mobility restrictions ordered by the Generalitat to prevent this Wednesday’s DANA episode. For hours, delays of several kilometers were generated and inside the vehicles, many drivers complained of being stuck and not having been warned. The Civil Protection of the Generalitat had sent a notice the day before via the Es-Alert system, but its main feature, a geolocated alert, meant that many passing truckers were unaware of the deletions. Other stranded drivers directly questioned the maximum restrictions as the storm ultimately proved less intense than expected. Others, however, assumed that after what happened in Valencia, restrictions were imposed that in other circumstances would have been ignored.
While the closure was planned until midnight this evening, traffic was finally reopened around 5:30 p.m. In the afternoon, with the restoration of traffic, the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, gave a positive assessment of the measures adopted, assuring that they had avoided possible incidents.
The department, for its part, assured that the AP-7 had been set up as a safe place to preserve vehicles and keep them away from other roads with a greater risk of flooding which ultimately did not occur. Concretely, the Servei Català de Trànsit (SCT) had cut twelve roads in Catalonia, including the AP-7, as part of the mobility restrictions in force in five regions of the province of Tarragona: Baix Camp, Baix Ebre, Montsià, Ribera. of Ebro and Tarragonès. During cut-off times, only emergencies were allowed through.
Schools reopen
Although the rainy episode was less intense, the Inuncat plan remains in force until midnight due to the risk of “some overflowing of streams and torrents”, as the councilor explained. The Generalitat confirmed that it is considering maintaining alert four out of six due to the intensity of the rain until midnight in this area and due to the accumulation of rain until six in the morning with a level three out of six. It is expected that during the day on Thursday the situation will completely normalize and school activity will resume in the aforementioned regions.
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