Floods in Spain | End of red alert after heavy rainfall, no new victims

(Valencia) “The worst is over”: the Spanish Meteorological Agency on Thursday lifted its red alert for bad weather in the south and east of Spain, at the end of a night marked by heavy precipitation, but without no new victims are reported by the authorities.

The Agency (AEMET) has downgraded to the “orange” level its alert for the Andalusian province of Malaga (South), and for the region of Valencia (East), where the memory of the tragic floods which left at least 223 dead there Barely two weeks ago, the victims feared the worst.

The public agency had placed these two regions on red alert on Wednesday evening, the maximum possible level, in a region with an “extreme” risk of flooding linked to the presence of a new “cold drop”, an isolated depression at high altitude quite common in autumn on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

“Avoid travel. Rivers overflow and flooding may occur,” she warned.

This message, issued just two weeks after the deadly floods that hit the south-east of the country, had revived the fears of residents, particularly in the communities affected by the floods, where around fifteen people are still missing and where works clearing continues.

“Prevention is better than cure”

According to AEMET, torrential rains did indeed fall during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, with accumulations of 110 liters of water per square meter (110 millimeters) recorded in Alcudia de Veo, in the hinterland of Valencia, and 88 liters (88 mm) in Chiva, a village already hit by floods at the end of October.

This rainfall forced emergency services to carry out new rescue operations, both in Andalusia and in the Valencia region, and led to road cuts. But no new victims have been reported by the authorities.

“The night was complicated. […] We have never seen so much rain,” Jordi Mayor, mayor of Cullera, a seaside town located south of the city of Valencia, testified on public television TVE, specifying that streets in his town were still “impassable.” Thursday morning.

In anticipation of this new bad weather, the authorities announced on Wednesday a series of measures to prevent the disaster scenario of October 29 from happening again.

In the Valencia region, traffic restrictions have been implemented in more than a hundred municipalities, where classes were also suspended on Thursday. The re-operation of trains between Madrid and Valencia, scheduled for Thursday morning, has also been postponed.

In Malaga, where several roads were flooded and air traffic was severely disrupted on Wednesday, the metro was closed and train traffic towards Madrid was suspended. More than 4,200 people had also been evacuated “preventatively”, according to the authorities.

Initially scheduled for Wednesday and postponed due to bad weather, the start of the Billie Jean King Tennis Cup will however take place on Thursday.

“Prevention is better than cure, we saw it in Valencia,” justified the conservative president of the Andalusia region, Juan Manuel Moreno, on Wednesday evening. On X, he called on residents on Thursday morning to remain “cautious” until the bad weather ends.

Research continues

According to AEMET, five provinces remain placed on orange alert on Thursday: three in Andalusia (Cádiz, Huelva and Seville) and two in the Valencia region (Alicante and Valencia).

In this last sector, the heavy rains that fell during the night affected the search operations for the still missing people, who have been concentrating for several days around the waterways and on the coast, at the river mouths.

Thursday morning, the latter resumed, as did the work of clearing and restoring the infrastructure. The soldiers deployed on the ground “continue to work” to allow “a return to normal” for residents, the Military Emergency Unit (UME) said on Thursday.

Due to this new rain, the hearing scheduled for Thursday at the regional parliament of Valencia of the president of the region Carlos Mazón, supposed to explain his management of the disaster, was postponed until Friday, according to a spokesperson for the Parliament.

The conservative leader has been the subject of strong criticism for 15 days because of his management considered chaotic of the floods of October 29. This indignation gave rise to massive demonstrations on Saturday, the largest of which brought together 130,000 people in Valencia.