Overflowing ravines and flooded houses and businesses in the Ebro: "We have lived through three floods like this one"

Tortosa / BarcelonaIn Santa Bàrbara, Victòria street is known by the popular name "el barranquet" (the little ravine). And popular names never lie. Because no matter how much the urban layout tries to hide it, it is the natural path of the Pelós ravine through the center of town. It crosses the municipality from west to east and, if 290 l/m² fall in 24 hours, as happened this Friday, the water does not remember that there are houses. "The level of the flash flood has risen more than half a meter and even though, preventively, we had installed protective wooden boards in front of the garage door, the force of the current broke them and flooded the ground floor," explained Amaya Pla this noon, from in front of her parents' house.

The heavy downpours that hit the Terres de l'Ebre during the early morning reactivated with force early in the day, and the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat) had to issue two new warnings to the population: one at 7 a.m. to warn of the intensity of the rain and a second, around 9 a.m., to request the confinement of the residents of Baix Ebre and Montsià. At noon, around 1 p.m., Civil Protection lifted this order, but continued to ask the population not to make any trips at least until 8 p.m. because the situation was "unstable" and still "at very high risk." While the downpours were discharging with force, the authorities urged the residents of about fifty municipalities in the south of the country to take extreme precautions: do not go outside and go up to the higher floors in the case of ground-floor residences.

Amaya's family warehouse has surely been one of the busiest homes in Santa Bàrbara. About fifteen young people with hoses, buckets, brooms, brushes, and shovels had offered to remove the mud and pump out the foot of water that was still remaining there: “I have been lucky to have them all, because my parents are elderly and without their help, we would still be removing wet earth tomorrow,” Amaya assured. The group, made up of young men and women in their twenties, have called themselves The Brigade and since the rain episode a year ago, they have organized themselves to help the town's neighbors who need it.

“During the floods of October 12th last year, I made a call to friends to clean a relative's house. When we finished, we started helping other people in town and that is how this initiative was born. In the last six years, Santa Bàrbara has suffered three floods like this one and, unfortunately, it is necessary to be in solidarity every time the water overflows,” explained Mikel Estarlich, one of the young people. By two in the afternoon, the group had already cleaned half a dozen ground floors on the same street. “We are an open group, around forty of us, who join the cleaning based on needs and availability. Since we haven't been able to leave the town due to the alert and the road closures, what better than to help our fellow citizens, right?” commented Abdel Mahal, who in the morning had not been able to reach Amposta, where he works at a real estate agency.

A few doors down, Patrícia Losada, the owner of a hair salon, observed the damage that the rain had caused to the premises. “I didn't put any protection on the door and the water reached the back. The wood of the furniture has already started to swell,” she lamented. For future occasions, she has already assumed that she will have to take measures to protect the business and install protective wood panels, as most of the neighbors on the street have done. "We don't have many alternatives, because the hair salon occupies the ground floor of the house and it is not convenient for me to move the business. The City Council is building some retention basins at the top of the ravine to try to avoid the virulence of the surges, but we are in the middle of the torrent, and we will have to adapt to it,” she added.

Schools closed

In this episode, some preventive measures have allowed for the reduction of the impact of the downpour. “The City Council issued many warnings, asked for cars to be moved, and relocated the trash containers. The drains were clean, and a few months ago they tore down a small wall that was at the end of the street, which was hindering the drainage of the ravine. We were better prepared than in previous years, and that has prevented major damage,” admitted Jesús Callau, who had joined the cleaning tasks at the hair salon. But this has not prevented damages, especially to the pavement, which in some sections of the street has been completely lifted.

Santa Bàrbara, however, has only been one of the points affected by an episode of storms that has hit the Terres de l'Ebre hard. The downpours have left accumulations of 265 l/m² in l'Ametlla de Mar, 227 in Mas de Barberans, 232 in les Cases d'Alcanar and 147 in Tortosa, where there have also been floods and overflowing ravines. The situation forced Civil Protection to issue an alert to request the confinement of the residents of Baix Ebre and Montsià. The order was lifted at noon, but the Government has maintained the recommendation to avoid travel at least until eight in the evening due to the persistence of the risk. Many schools have closed today.

About 600 calls have been received by 112 and the Fire Department has carried out about twenty rescues of people trapped in vehicles, mainly on the axis marked by the municipalities of Alcanar and la Ràpita. They also had to intervene in cases of people with reduced mobility who had been trapped in buildings. In Tortosa, Civil Protection and the Red Cross have provisionally set up about twenty beds at the Temple pavilion to accommodate evacuated people or citizens who cannot continue their journey due to the storm. The episode has also caused disruptions to the electricity supply, with about 5,000 people experiencing interference.

The Galera ravine has flooded the C-12 road and half a dozen communication routes have been cut off. Trains have also suffered delays. By mid-afternoon, the storms in the Terres de l’Ebre had eased and the situation has been gradually normalizing. In this storm, there are no reported injuries, but at dawn about twenty residents of two buildings in the historic center of Tortosa had to be evicted from their homes due to the risk of structural collapse. For the moment, five people have had to be transferred to one of the shelters set up in Ulldecona, Tortosa, and Amposta.

In addition, some 5,000 people have suffered power supply interruptions, many caused by lightning strikes, and the Government delegate in the Terres de l'Ebre, Joan Castor, has explained that they are working to guarantee accessibility to some scattered farmhouses and farms, where it is suspected that livestock may have drowned.