VALENCIA – The period of heavy and prolonged storms that battered large parts of southeast Spain, triggering a state of emergency, is over. In the city of Valencia, all rain records have been broken; in just over 24 hours 232 litres per square metre were recorded. With this, the rainfall record of 25 May 1871 has been broken.
Consequently, the rainfall caused chaos. There were floods in the Palau de la Música, and leaks in characteristic buildings such as the Mercator Central and Valencia City Hall. Parks and gardens were closed, and tunnels were flooded. Furthermore, there were widespread traffic jams in the city and cars stuck. In addition, metro and tram services had to be suspended for hours and tunnels were closed due to the floods.
Code red and orange
The situation prompted the Emergency Coordination Centre of the Generalitat to declare a state of emergency. Code red was applied to the north coast of Valencia and orange level to the south coast of Castellón. Furthermore, the Valencian fire brigade had to carry out several rescue operations to save people trapped in vehicles. Moreover, this was mainly those that had ended up in the flood water in the towns of Paterna, Alzira and Algemesí.
At the Universitat Politècnica de València, university classes at the Vera campus were suspended all day Wednesday. And, consequently, a state of emergency level 1 was declared. This meant that teaching activities and scheduled exams continued. However, classes were cancelled due to the weather conditions.
Heavy rainfall was also warned for in the Murcia region, especially Campo de Cartagena and Mazarrón. There was also a coastal warning for Wednesday night until early Thursday morning, with possible waves of 3 metres and winds of levels 6 to 7.
Disaster area
The regional coordinator of Podemos, Javier Sánchez Serna, has announced that his party will support the declaration of a disaster area for Caravaca, Bullas, Cehegín, Pliego or Mula, after visiting the latter municipality accompanied by the spokesman of the IU in the city, Antonio Moreno, and the regional coordinator of this formation, José Luis Alvárez.
In Castilla-La Mancha, the regional government suspended the Specific Plan against the Risk of Severe Weather Events (Meteocam) at 9.00 am on Wednesday. This was due to the positive development of the weather forecasts, which led to 10 incidents of rain and storms.
Weather for Thursday
According to data from the Spanish weather service Aemet, showers are forecast for Thursday in the Balearic Islands. There will also be occasional thunderstorms. In the southern and eastern parts of Spain, it will remain cloudy and showers may continue.
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