The weather situation in Malaga is slowly stabilizing. The day before, these regions of Spain were hit by downpours. A campaign to clean up the streets that were under water is underway, and schools are scheduled to resume classes on Friday. The police showed footage from the streets of the flooded city. Last night, four thousand people spent the night outside their homes after being evacuated.
In Malaga, clean-up is underway after Wednesday's downpours that hit this region of Spain. And although, as the local weather service AEMET said, “the worst is over”, yellow and orange alerts for moderate rainfall are still in force in the region. There is no information about any injured people.
The situation in Malaga is slowly returning to normal
After two days of closure, schools and institutes in the province of Malaga will resume their activities on Friday, as will the university there. However, education authorities continue to monitor the weather situation.
The postponed tennis match between Spanish and Polish players as part of the Billie Jean King Cup tournament is also scheduled to take place on that day. The meeting was canceled on Wednesday due to the difficult weather situation.
The streets of Malaga turned into raging rivers on Wednesday. Nearly four evacuees from areas near the Guadalhorce River are expected to return to their homes on Friday. Preventive evacuations related to fears of flooding of the Guadiaro River were also carried out, among others. in Cadiz in southwestern Spain, where the rains have moved.
In the provincial capital that day, 150 liters of water fell per square meter, which led to flash floods – reported the daily “El Mundo”.
On Thursday, Spanish police showed footage from a helicopter showing flooded fields and streets in the city of Malaga.
Army to help
More roads and railway routes are being put into operation in eastern Spain. On Thursday, the Ministry of Transport announced the restoration of the high-speed rail connection between Valencia and Madrid. By decision of local authorities, traffic on some roads is to be limited until Sunday.
As a result of the flood, the government deployed over 8,500 people in the area. military personnel. However, according to the Madrid daily ABC, many soldiers complain about the lack of coordination of aid activities, which causes dissatisfaction in the ranks of the army.
On Wednesday, metro and train traffic was suspended, including the high-speed train between Madrid and Malaga. Some roads have been closed.
Footage showing the scale of the disaster has circulated on social media.
Concerns in Valencia
A difficult situation also occurred in the province of Valencia, which suffered particularly during a flash flood that killed at least 224 people at the end of October, and the fate of dozens remains unknown. To prepare for the current downpours, local services have stopped searching for missing people.
This time, heavy rainfall missed the most affected areas two weeks ago. In the Cullera commune, a rainfall of 80 l/sq m was recorded. – local media reported. High-speed train services between Valencia and Madrid were restored on Thursday.
Violent stormsdownpours and floods are the result of an atmospheric phenomenon known in Spain as DANA (depression aislada en niveles altos). It is formed when cold air meets warm and moist air over the Mediterranean Sea, leading to extreme weather phenomena such as storms, tornadoes and floods.
Almost half of the victims of previous floods were 70 years old
According to the latest government data from Thursday, 224 people died in the tragic floods in late October in the south and east of Spain, and the search for the missing is still ongoing. In Valencia alone, 216 deaths were recorded, 104 of whom were over 70 years old. Additionally, nine of the victims were minors. In terms of nationality, 190 of the victims were Spanish and 26 were foreigners, including nine Romanians and several representatives of 10 other nationalities. So far, there are no Poles among the victims.
El Mundo, El Pais, tvnmeteo.pl, TVE
Main photo source: Reuters