The red alert was issued in the Barcelona region on Monday, November 4, just days after flash floods killed at least 217 people in the coastal region of Valencia.
Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente announced he was suspending all commuter trains in northeastern Catalonia, where some 8 million people live. Puente added that some flights to Barcelona airport were being diverted and that a landslide had caused serious traffic jams on a local highway.
Mobile phones of residents on the city’s southern outskirts received messages warning of “extreme and continuous rain” and residents were urged to avoid normally dry canals and gorges.
Nearly 150 educational institutions in the region canceled classes for the day. A red alert for precipitation has also been issued in the city of Tarragona, south of Barcelona.
Several highways were closed due to flooding, with images posted on social media showing vehicles along a low section of a partially submerged thoroughfare.
Classes were canceled in Tarragona, a town in southern Catalonia halfway between Barcelona and Valencia, after a red rain alert was issued.
Meanwhile, in besieged Valencia, searches continued for bodies in homes, parking lots and thousands of wrecked cars still scattered in the streets, on highways and in the canals that channeled the week’s deluge last towards populated areas.
Citizens, volunteers and some 10,000 soldiers and police have been deployed to help with the massive cleanup effort as residents try to clear their homes and belongings of a thick layer of mud and debris.
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