The national meteorological agency (Aemet) has issued a red alert, the maximum level, due to heavy rains forecast on the coast near Valencia, two weeks after deadly floods which hit the region.
“The danger is extreme. Avoid travel. Rivers overflow and floods may occur,” Aemet warned on X. The alert is activated from 9 p.m. until 12 p.m. Thursday.
During the day, Aemet had already issued a red alert, the maximum level, for the provinces of Malaga (Andalusia), still in force, and Tarragona (Catalonia), since lowered to the orange level, due to the arrival of a “cold drop”, an isolated high altitude depression quite common in autumn on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
Up to 180 liters of precipitation per square meter could accumulate in the coming hours, the weather agency said.
Research operations compromised
These heavy rains are causing fear in the region, already hit by the deadly floods of October 29, in particular of seeing the sewers still blocked by mud overflow.
In the municipality of Paiporta, considered the epicenter of the disaster two weeks ago, residents set up makeshift barricades with earth bags in front of house doors.
Bad weather affected search operations for the 17 people still missing, concentrated mainly around waterways and on the coast, at river mouths. “Search at sea was compromised due to the maritime storm,” Rosa Tourís, spokesperson for Cecopi, Valencia’s emergency committee, told the press. “After this meteorological episode, the tides will be evaluated again to determine the search areas,” she added.
As a precaution, several municipalities in the region have asked the thousands of volunteers who come every day to help residents clear the streets not to go to the disaster areas on Wednesday.
Evacuation in Malaga
In Malaga, Andalusia, where several roads were flooded, the metro was closed, the train line to Madrid was suspended and flights were diverted. The municipality evacuated nearly three thousand people “preventatively”.
“Today, Malaga is paralyzed,” declared the president of the Andalusia region Juan Manuel Moreno, during a trip to Seville. “Prevention is better than cure, we saw it in Valencia”, the priority being to “minimize the impact in terms of loss of human lives”, insisted the president of the region.
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