This new meteorological episode revives the fears of the victims. New torrential rains fell on Wednesday, November 13 in southern and eastern Spain, two weeks after an exceptional storm in the Mediterranean caused the deadliest floods in Spain in decades. This meteorological phenomenon, which occurred on October 29, caused 223 deaths, the majority in the Valencian Community, according to the latest official report.
The national meteorological agency, Aemet, has issued a “red alert” for “extreme danger”that is, the maximum level, in the provinces of Málaga (South) and Tarragona (Northeast), due to this new “cold drop”, an isolated depression at high altitude that is quite common in autumn on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
In Malaga, where several roads were flooded, the metro was closed, the train line to Madrid was suspended and flights were diverted. The municipality evacuated almost 3,000 people “preventively”.
“Today Malaga is paralyzed”declared the president of the Andalusian region, Juan Manuel Moreno, during a trip to Seville. “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.
Shortly after, the Spanish meteorological agency also placed the coast near Valencia in “red alert” because of the rains. “The danger is extreme. Avoid traveling. River overflows and flooding may occur »he warned. The alert is activated from 9 p.m. local time until noon on Thursday. In the red alert areas, located on the coast, between 120 and 180 liters of precipitation per square meter (120 to 180 millimeters) could accumulate in the next few hours, according to the agency. The precipitation will last until Thursday.
“We have already lost our cars, we have already lost a large part of our houses and we don’t have jobs either. So we have nothing to lose.”lamented Carlos Moltó, a resident of Picanya, a town of 11,000 inhabitants located on the outskirts of Valencia, to the regional television network A Punt.
The neighboring municipality of Paiporta, considered the epicenter of the October 29 tragedy, suffered new flooding, according to the newspaper. The Provinces. In this town, still devastated, residents have built improvised barricades with bags of earth in front of the doors of their houses.
As a precautionary measure, several municipalities in the region have asked the thousands of volunteers who come every day to help residents clean the streets, not to go to the damaged areas on Wednesday.
Alert messages
In Andalusia and Catalonia, where there are two provinces on red alert (Málaga and Tarragona), the authorities anticipated the possible consequences of the heavy rains by sending alert messages to mobile phones, the reception of which causes a strong sound signal. “Be very careful, avoid traveling and follow the advice” emergency services, reports the message sent to Malaga.
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Military vehicles circulated through some towns in the Valencian Community to warn residents of possible storms by megaphone, urging them to avoid doing anything. “unnecessary trips”according to images broadcast by public television TVE.
The red alert issued by the Aemet, corresponding to meteorological phenomena “of exceptional intensity” presentation “a very high level of risk for the population”It also led authorities to suspend classes on Wednesday in part of Catalonia and in Andalusian cities such as Granada and Malaga. Therefore, schools in cities recently affected by floods in the east of the country will remain closed on Wednesday.
In the Valencian Community, dozens of municipalities, including Chiva, one of the most affected, have also closed gyms due to the threat of new torrential rains. “According to the information provided by the emergency services, school and sports activities will be suspended starting tomorrow. [mercredi] and until further notice »announced the city council on day X.
Continuous research
The new rains could disrupt the search for the 17 people still missing, according to authorities. Operations are concentrated mainly around waterways and on the coast, at the mouths of rivers.
The Valencian authorities were harshly criticized for sending this alert message late on October 29: Aemet had put the region on red alert in the morning, but many residents of the area were already under water when the message was transmitted.
Outrage against the authorities, accused of having poorly assessed the risks and having delayed the deployment of aid for too long, gave rise to massive demonstrations on Saturday, the largest of which brought together 130,000 people in the city of Valencia.
In this city, bad weather also caused the postponement to Friday of a match between Spain and Poland as part of the Billie Jean King Women’s Tennis Cup, which was to be played on Wednesday afternoon. In the Valencian Community, this new “cold drop” caused waves of more than 4 meters on the coast, and convinced the authorities to close certain roads and train lines. Maritime traffic was also suspended in the ports of Valencia and Sagunto.
