The Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) lifted its red alert this Thursday, November 14, for bad weather in the south and east of the country, at the end of a night marked by heavy rains, of which the authorities have not reported new victims in this stage.
“The worst of this second depression is over”declared Aemet, which lowered its alert for the province of Malaga, in Andalusia (South) and for the Valencian Community (Southeast) to level orange.
This new meteorological episode has revived the fears of victims, two weeks after an exceptional storm in the Mediterranean caused deadly floods. This meteorological phenomenon, which occurred on October 29, caused 223 deaths, the majority in the Valencian Community.
The Aemet thus issued a red alert this Wednesday for “extreme danger”due to this new cold drop, an isolated high-altitude depression quite common in autumn on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
Alert messages
On Wednesday, in Malaga, where several roads were flooded, the metro was closed, the train line to Madrid was suspended and flights were diverted. The municipality had evacuated more than 4,200 people “preventively”. “Today Malaga is paralyzed”declared the president of the region of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno. “Prevention is better than cure, we saw it in Valencia”being the priority “minimize the impact in terms of loss of human life”insisted the president of the region.
Aemet had also put the coast near Valencia on red alert due to rain. “The danger is extreme. Avoid traveling. River overflows and flooding may occur »he warned. In the red alert areas, located on the coast, between 120 and 180 liters of precipitation per square meter (120 to 180 millimeters) are expected, according to the agency.
In Andalusia and Catalonia, where there are two provinces placed on red alert (Málaga and Tarragona), the authorities had anticipated the possible consequences of the heavy rains by sending alert messages to phones. Military vehicles had traveled through some towns in the Valencian Community to warn residents by megaphone, urging them to avoid doing “unnecessary trips”.
The red alert had also led the authorities to suspend classes on Wednesday in part of Catalonia and in Andalusian cities, such as Granada and Malaga. In the Valencian Community, dozens of municipalities had also closed gyms.
Valencia authorities were heavily criticized for sending their warning message late on October 29: many residents in the area were already underwater when the message was transmitted. Outrage against the authorities led to mass demonstrations on Saturday, the largest of which drew 130,000 people in Valencia.
