end of red alert for bad weather in the south and east of the country

The Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) lifted its red alert for bad weather in the south and east of the country on Thursday, November 14, at the end of a night marked by heavy rainfall, for which the authorities did not have any reported new victims at this stage.

“The worst of this second depression is over”declared Aemet, which downgraded to orange level its alert for the province of Malaga, in Andalusia (South) and for the region of Valencia (South-East).

This new meteorological episode has revived the fears of the victims, two weeks after an exceptional Mediterranean storm caused deadly floods. This meteorological phenomenon, which occurred on October 29, caused 223 deaths, most of them in the Valencia region.

Aemet, thus issued a red alert on 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 Andalusia region, Juan Manuel Moreno. “Prevention is better than cure, we saw it in Valencia”the priority being to “minimize the impact in terms of loss of human life”insisted the president of the region.

Aemet had also placed the coastline near Valencia on red alert for rain. “The danger is extreme. Avoid travel. River overflows and flooding may occur »she warned. In areas placed on red alert, located on the coast, nearly 120 liters to 180 liters of precipitation per square meter (120 millimeters to 180 millimeters) was expected, according to the agency.

In Andalusia and Catalonia, where there are two provinces which had been placed on red alert (Malaga and Tarragona), the authorities had anticipated the possible consequences of heavy rains by sending alert messages to telephones. Military vehicles had traveled through some towns in the Valencia region to warn residents by megaphone, urging them to avoid making “unnecessary travel”.

The red alert had, moreover, led the authorities to suspend classes on Wednesday in part of Catalonia and in Andalusian cities, such as Granada and Malaga. In the Valencia region, dozens of municipalities had also closed gymnasiums.

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 gave rise to massive demonstrations on Saturday, the largest of which brought together 130,000 people in Valencia.