Two weeks after the tragic DANA in Valencia – the deadliest in decades, which left 223 dead and twenty missing – the torrential rains, ravine overflows and floods have returned to the Mediterranean coast. The most affected areas have been
the provinces of Málaga, Castellón and Tarragona, although this time the rains have arrived with the population warned, semi-confined and even evacuated preventively.
The worst of the storm at midday is in Malaga and surrounding areas, although throughout the afternoon it could once again affect the Valencian area devastated in the previous DANA, where the poor weather forecasts make it difficult to search for missing people at sea and restrict circulation in around twenty municipalities.
The rains of this second DANA began to gain intensity on Tuesday night, causing flooding in municipalities such as Benicarló or Vinarós, in Castellón. In Malaga, in anticipation of what was to come 3,000 residents of the Guadalhorce riverbed were evictedalso those of the Campanillas River, in the capital, and in the morning another fifteen residents in Benalmádena were relocated after the fall of a wall. The province has provided shelters for all those who do not have housing alternatives.
The city of Malaga woke up half empty, due to the alert that sounded on citizens’ cell phones with the DANA notice. All educational centers in Malaga have closed. Without classes in primary, secondary and university, this has translated into 1,200 educational centers closed and 350,000 students who have not attended their classes, regardless of the fact that trials, events and ITV inspections have been suspended, among other activities.
In eastern Andalusia All residents have been advised to avoid mobility unnecessary and for companies to favor teleworking as much as possible. In the hours before the people of Malaga heard the red alert on their mobile phones due to the storm this Wednesday, which made the people of Malaga empty the shelves of many supermarkets so as not to be left without supplies.
The area around Malaga, from Axarquía to Coín, has been the area most affected by the first rains of the day, causing flooding on public roads and even a sea area in front of Marbella. The floods reached the streets and facilities of Malaga since midday, causing floods that have closed the AVE from Madrid to the city and turning hospital corridors into rivers.
In the afternoon, heavy rains caused the Benamargosa River to overflow as it passed through the town of the same name, where several homes were flooded. Given the possibility of this happening, some neighbors had already evacuated to higher points of the municipality. The City Council warned of the risk of “a lot of water arriving at once” and asked residents not to go out into the street. Its mayor, Salvador Arcas, indicated that “I had never seen” a similar situation.
At least one hundred municipalities in Granada, some bordering Malaga, have also canceled school activities and the capital’s City Council requested teleworking for non-essential positions, and ordered the closure of parks, a special device from the Local Police and extra shelter places for homeless people.
Due to the weather conditions, Adif was also forced to suspend railway circulation on the line Valencia-Barcelona between the stations of Castelló de la Plana and Cambrils.
In Catalonia the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) has warned of the possibility of “major flash floods” of a local nature in ravines and minor tributary channels of the lower section of the river. Heavy rains are expected, especially in the Tarragona regions of Montsià, Baix Ebre, Terra Alta and Ribera d’Ebre.
Meteorologists have announced that this afternoon one of the strongest storms in DANA points towards Valencia and Castellón and for tonight there will be rainfall, some of stormy origin, which is expected to exceed 40-50 l/m2 in just one hour in areas of the coast of Valencia, the northern coast of Alicante and Castellón. In some places the rainfall could reach torrential amounts, but the bulk of the precipitation is expected to fall on the sea and in the most coastal areas.
In Congress, the entire Government control session has been focused on DANA. The Government, through the minister of territorial policy, has demanded a State pact against climate change so that Spain can be better prepared to face phenomena such as DANA, while the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has asked workers in the face of the red alert to telework to avoid risks.
