Although the weather situation has started to ease in the Valencian Community, AEMET is currently maintaining different alerts in communities such as Andalusia or Catalonia. At the beginning of the afternoon, the most complicated forecast is the one that points to the region of Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). This area is currently under the agency’s red notice for heavy rain.
This is AEMET’s highest alert level, as the meteorological agency points out on its social networks, and points to an “extreme” risk. This is an alert level similar to the one that was activated yesterday in different regions of the Valencian Community, the most affected currently by DANA and which has already caused at least 70 deaths.
The AEMET notice, however, extends its attention not only to this city of Cádiz but to the rest of the province, as well as to other neighboring cities such as Seville, where it has placed the notice on orange alert. Areas such as the mountains north of Seville or the Sevillian countryside are threatened with heavy rain in an alert that the agency maintains until midnight, according to the latest update published.
The local civil protection service reported that Jerez was on red alert due to forecasts of rain of up to 120 liters in 12 hours and the city council asked all citizens to “exercise caution and caution.” The Jerez City Council activated this Wednesday at 1 p.m. the Local Territorial Emergency Plan in emergency phase and operational situation 1 until the different meteorological means that affect the municipality drop in level.
As explained by the Deputy Mayor, Agustín Muñoz, this decision was adopted due to the extension of the warnings issued by the orange warning due to rain with accumulations of up to 80 liters in 12 hours and a probability of up to 70 percent due to storm. widespread warnings that may produce local rain and strong winds.
The virtual CECOP is already activated and the brigades of local police, fire, civil protection and environmental operators work in coordination to resolve incidents that occur. Parks, zoobotanicals, cemeteries and sports facilities have been closed and bus service has been paralyzed because traffic is impossible.
In the rural area, early in the day, the CA-9017 highway that connects Torrecera and Paterna was cut due to the overflow of the Arroyo Salado de Paterna, according to Mayor Francis Arcila. In the ELA of Barca de la Florida, the situation of Puente Chico was worrying. Mayor Alejandro López said the Guadalete River had not yet exceeded its height, but he remained on alert about the future state of the bridge. In Estella del Marqués, a stream that crosses Arboleda Street has overflowed again. This channel, which originates from the Las Aguilillas park, has carried branches and vegetation, causing it to overflow.
The AEMET map points to other territories in the country, such as Catalonia, where the alert reaches orange. The situation fundamentally threatens the Baix Llobregat region (Barcelona). The Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat) has decreed the maximum alert level in the event of violent weather, risk of hail of more than 2 cm and wind gusts of more than 25 meters per second that could cause tornadoes in the province of Barcelona .
For its part, the Town Hall of the Catalan capital has decreed the General Municipal Emergency Plan due to the poor state of the sea. As part of this system, the Urban Guard has been deployed along the Barcelona coast and is blocking the access to breakwaters and beaches.
Waves of up to 2.5 meters are expected to occur on the coast of Barcelona. The Generalitat has asked for caution and to avoid traveling by road, as well as approaching beaches and breakwaters. Given the high risk, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, will meet again at 6:30 p.m. with the DANA monitoring committee.
Other communities on alert
The latest map published by AEMET also points to other territories where complicated next hours are expected. Since this morning, several localities in the province of Teruel have also been affected, where there have been river overflows, flooding of streets and apartments and cuts in the road network. The Lower Aragón region remains on yellow alert, according to the meteorological agency, at least until late this afternoon.
It is a situation similar to that expected for the next few hours in some areas of Zaragoza and even in the south of Huesca.
Besides Aragon, some neighboring communities also remain under yellow alert which will last throughout the afternoon. This is the case of Navarre. The AEMET indicates both the Navarrese Pyrenees area and the center and banks of the Ebro.
