The DANA which is hitting half of Spain unleashed all its fury on the south-east of the peninsula this Tuesday. The worst has been taken the province of Valencewhere the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, indicated after midnight that There are several deaths, without specifying the number of deaths or the place where they were observed. THE small town of Létur (Albacete), where at least six people are missing after a violent water storm which overflowed a stream and flooded the center of the town.
torrential rain they have They wreaked havoc in many places and left behind traces of destruction. Incidents number in the hundreds in the Valencian Community, Castile-La Mancha, Region of Murcia or Andalusia. In some areas, heavy rains left more than 200 liters per square meter in just a few hours, according to data from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
This Tuesday was marked in red by the National Meteorological Agency. It was “the most unfavorable and exceptional day” of the meteorological episode, as defined by Aemet. He was not wrong in his prediction. Intense rains have placed several provinces on the Mediterranean coast on red alert, causing heavy floods, traffic cutsdevastated crops or the derailment of an AVE Málaga-Madrid convoy.
Furthermore, Adif was forced to temporarily interrupt rail traffic on the high speed line Madrid-Valencia. Aena, for its part, diverted twelve flights to Valencia to other airports and He canceled ten other departures.
Authorities have called for caution throughout the day as rain could be dangerous in various regions of Spain, especially in low-lying areas and in boulevards and ravines which usually have little flow and are now seeing it very high .
VIDEO | DANA hits the south and east of the peninsula, leaving several dead and missing as well as innumerable damage
Valencia, the most punished
Added to the devastation and chaos resulting from the intense rains is the human tragedy. It is currently known that several dead bodies were found following the strong storm in the province of Valencia, according to Mazón, who, out of respect for their families, did not want to give more details on the places where they were found. been found. were found.
🚨 #DANA | @carlos_mazon_ : “We can confirm that they had things in life”
The president confirmed the deaths of a to-be-determined number of people after emergency services entered the worst-affected areas.#MinutAMinut ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/lv91doesfC
– To Punt NTC (@apuntnoticies) October 29, 2024
Precisely, the scale of DANA has led to Civil Protection will activate, for the first time, the massive alert on all cell phones in the province of Valencia ask the population to avoid traveling.
🚨📲The @generalitatthrough the Emergency Coordination Center, has activated the Es-Alert population notification system to preventively inform residents throughout the province of Valencia.
The text of the message is as follows⬇️ pic.twitter.com/wKfsCGopTU
— Emergencies 112CV (@GVA112) October 29, 2024
“It’s going to be a long night.”notified early Tuesday evening Carlos Mazonwho urged the population not to go out on the road, especially in the province of Valencia, to stay at home and to look for high points if they are near ravines or river beds.
The heavy rains caused very serious flooding in Valencia, leaving many people stranded in their homes and vehicles and forcing the Military Emergency Unit (UME) to carry out air and ground rescues.
Heavy rains overflowed Magro and caused havoc in Utiel after suffering a waterspout of 200 liters per square meter in two hours. Another flood washed away a bridge in the town of Picanya and inundated the center of the town of chiva.
The water carries away one of the bridges of the Poyo ravine as it passes Picanya. They just sent me this video. pic.twitter.com/kqsrOPB8kG
–Javier Mantrana (@Javier_Mantrana) October 29, 2024
The authorities They do not exclude other excesses, since the Forata dam, which has reached the limit of its capacity, has reached 1,000 cubic meters of water.
Traffic was also seriously affected by 19 regional roads closed at different times in the region throughout the day. Classes have been suspended in at least 68 municipalitiesmainly in the province of Valencia.
Register in Chiva
DANA has broken records in some parts of the community. In Chiva they registered 445.4 liters per square meterthe greatest amount of precipitation in 24 hours in the Valencian Community since the cold fall of September 1996, when 520 liters per square meter accumulated in Tavernes de la Vall.
Chiva data comes from the automatic station of the @CHJucar. Currently, 445.4 are already registered.
This is the largest amount of precipitation in 24 hours in the Valencian Community since the cold fall of September 11, 1996, when 520 l/m2 accumulated in Tavernes de la Vall.— AEMET_C. Valencian (@AEMET_CValencia) October 29, 2024
The Valencian Community should “suffer” this Wednesday another very unfavorable daywhere it will rain with torrential intensity after a Tuesday difficult to forget for many Valencians. The red alert will remain on the coast and the northern interior of Valencia, and the orange alert on the southern interior and due to storms.
Tragedy in Letur
Létura small town nestled in the Sierra del Segura, experienced a tragic day. The storm hit this town of just over 900 inhabitants, leaving dozens of Dantesque images which quickly went viral.
⛈️😱What a scandal! Impressive images that come to us from Letur, where the stream has completely overflowed, affecting the streets of its old town. We hope there are no injuries. #DANA #Albacete #weatherAB
© @Gomarizo pic.twitter.com/SuuX54v5Aj
– Météo⚡Hellín (@MeteoHellin) October 29, 2024
Six of your neighborsincluding two City Hall employees who were working with a van on a boulevard, are missing, as confirmed by Milagros Tolón, government delegate in Castile-La Mancha.
A huge waterspout caused the overflow of a stream, transform the urban area of the commune into a gigantic flood. In just a few minutes, Letur transformed into an apocalyptic scenario, with its streets completely flooded, full of rubble and dozens of half-ruined houses.
An “unprecedented disaster” as described by the mayor of Letur, Sergio Marín, in statements to the media. The situation is “complicated” – added the councilor – and, in addition to the missing people, There are around thirty neighbors isolated at homein the urban area, some of them in one of the bars in the municipality.
Meanwhile, firefighters and a Civil Guard helicopter are trying to find six “unlocated” people, even though The number of missing people could be higher.
The effects of the storm in this town of Albacete led the government of Castilla-La Mancha to install a temporary 60-bed shelter at the Nuestra Señora de La Asunción public school to shelter any residents who may have been affected.
Nearly 800 incidents in Andalusia
In Andalusia, the most affected provinces were Malaga, Granada and Almeríawith some 786 emergencies caused by severe flooding in home basements, basements, garages and roads.
The notices received by 112 were concentrated in Malaga and Granada and, in the case of the province of Malaga, the effects of the storm affected the capital of the Costa del Sol and the municipalities of Álora and Pizarra, where the increase in the flow of the Guadalhorce River This led to flooding of rural homes and calls for help from people trapped in their homes and cars stuck in puddles.
In the middle of the rain, a high-speed train (AVE) traveling between Malaga and Madrid with 291 passengers on board derailed after a bogie left the track -piece of the train to which the axles and wheels are attached- of the front cabin during its passage through the town of Álora in Malaga. Fortunately, there were no injuries.
In the city of Almeria The EjidoA hailstorm “with rocks the size of ping-pong balls“, according to farmers, caused great damage to greenhouses and affected between 4,500 hectares – according to Mayor Francisco Góngora – and 11,300 – according to the Union of Small Farmers and Breeders -.
The Andalusian government has assured that it will help Andalusian farmers “with everything necessary” once the damage caused by the storm that hit mainly Malaga and Almería has been assessed.
crisis committee
Faced with hundreds of incidents recorded in half of Spain, the government created a crisis committee on Tuesday evening to monitor the effects of DANA on the Mediterranean coast and in Albacete, with the aim of coordinating work and assistance faced with this phenomenon. .
For his part, the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezindicated on the X network that it follows “closely and with concern the information on the missing people and the damage caused by DANA”.
“All emergency services, @proteccioncivil, @UMEgob and members of @policia and @guardiacivil are deployed in the face of the storm. Let’s follow their instructions. Be very careful and avoid unnecessary travel,” he stressed.
I am following closely and with concern the information on the missing people and the damage caused by DANA in recent hours.
All emergency services, @proteccioncivil, @UMEgob and the troops of @police And @guardiacivil They are deployed before the storm.…
– Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) October 29, 2024
It’s raining in the rain
Weather forecast for this Wednesday They are not very flattering and they emphasize that the situation will be complicated in many regions of the southeast of the peninsula. And it will be especially in the areas most affected by DANA on this Tuesday.
According to AEMET, the rains will be intense in western Andalusia, in the Strait area, in a large part of the Iberian system, in the north of the Valencian Community and in Catalonia and with less intensity in d other areas of the interior of the peninsula.
On Thursday, it is very likely that DANA continues its route towards the northwest of the peninsulathat is why the heaviest precipitation is expected in the southwest of the peninsula, while it will decrease in the Mediterranean area and, from Friday, the outlook will be uncertain, although the rains could move again towards the southeast.
