Parlon defends the management of the floods that have left one dead: "The alert did not arrive late"

BarcelonaThe Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, defended this Thursday that the mobile alerts for last night's intense rains were sent in view of the predictions of "flash" floods: "They do not arrive late, but rather when the population must protect itself." The minister said this in a joint appearance with the deputy director of Civil Protection of the Generalitat, Sergi Delgado, where they reported on the management of the downpours from last night, which caused the death of a driver in Olivella, in Garraf, as well as road and train closures, flight cancellations, and various floods.

According to Parlon, the sending of Es-Alert messages—yesterday evening and at night in the metropolitan area, when it was already raining heavily—was correct and was "fully justified," in accordance with the "meteorological prediction corrected for risk of flash flooding." "We do not send the Es-Alert to warn that it will rain a lot," stressed the minister, who recalled that yesterday's rainfall did not have a "stable behavior." In this sense, the minister considered that "alerts are not sent lightly," but only after assessing the danger to the population: "We cannot stop life in general, because in the end, no one would listen to us," she defended.

The explanations come after the Fire Department found the lifeless body of the driver who was dragged away with his car by a stream in Olivella at midnight yesterday. The rescue teams first located the car, and finally the victim, about 500 meters from the vehicle.

The rain, which fell heavily on the coast of Garraf and Barcelonès, caused floods and serious mobility problems. The Ronda de Dalt was cut off in both directions and there were also cars trapped in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, heading towards Mataró. By half past eleven at night, firefighters had already accumulated almost 200 calls due to the storm.

The mayor of the Catalan capital, Jaume Collboni, closed ranks this Thursday with Parlon and rejected that it was necessary to send the Es-Alert earlier. In this sense, he stressed that both the City Council and Civil Protection had already issued warnings throughout the day to the population in view of the prospect of heavy rain. Regarding the flooding in the metro or the Ronda de Dalt, Collboni admitted that if these rain episodes become more frequent, "it should not be ruled out" that it may be necessary to review some infrastructures to improve their capacity to resist downpours.

Effects on mobility

This morning the impact of the torrential rains was still evident. A traffic disruption has affected the R2, R2Nord, and R11 lines since this morning, between Barcelona (Sant Andreu) and Granollers Centre. The reason? The rain has caused two new holes to appear in the ground by the tracks, very close to the spot where last July a large sinkhole swallowed a crane from the Rodalies construction works, near Vallbona.

Thus, traffic remains completely interrupted on these lines. Just a few minutes ago, at two in the afternoon, Adif confirmed that one of the tracks has already been opened. According to Renfe, however, trains are not yet running. Before carrying passengers again, test runs (without passengers) will be carried out, as well as the usual traffic and safety checks in such cases.

Meanwhile, Adif workers continue to work on filling the holes, reopening the other track, and returning normalcy to the network. According to spokespeople for the infrastructure manager, heavy rains have washed away the ballast (the stones under the tracks) and other materials. For its part, Renfe has tried to ensure mobility by planning an alternative transport service with buses by road.

Apart from this new incident, the network is carrying other problems such as delays and speed restrictions derived from the rains. At this time, "punctual" low speeds are still maintained in points such as the R4, where additionally there has also been a new copper theft, between Castellbisbal and Molins de Rei. All this has caused delays to remain at an average of about 30 minutes throughout the morning.

The operator Renfe has also explained that the storm flooded the pits of the Sant Andreu Comtal workshop at dawn, which is used as a maintenance base for regional trains. Renfe has explained that technicians have been working since early in the morning to drain the accumulated water, check for possible damage, and recover normalcy "and thus avoid the impact on the medium-distance service in the coming days".

At El Prat airport, there were also about twenty cancellations and numerous delays. And finally, on the Barcelona metro, the main platform of Fabra i Puig remains closed and some lines like the L4 and L11 are also experiencing problems.

Severe flooding at Vall d'Hebron Hospital

Vall d'Hebron Hospital is also suffering the consequences of yesterday's storm. The downpour caused flooding in the basements of three buildings of this reference medical center, which are still being cleaned this morning. The rain even caused part of a false ceiling to collapse in the pediatric nephrology ward, without the damage affecting any patients. As a precaution, however, some of the inpatients were moved to other areas.