The downpours leave a good part of Barcelona without metro, but the Ronda de Dalt reopens

BarcelonaA new day of heavy rains in Catalonia, with streets flooded by water and mobility disruptions on the country's coast, especially in the metropolitan area of Barcelona and the Penedès region. Although there have been no major incidents to report, the Generalitat Fire Department had to rescue a woman and her baby, only five months old, from inside a car that was submerged in a stream in Gavà, with a meter of water. The storm has once again greatly complicated mobility around the Catalan capital. Around 5:00 PM, the Ronda de Dalt was reopened after being closed all morning at the height of Vall d'Hebron, but there were still many metro lines with sections out of service.

According to sources from the corps, the woman called 112 saying that the water was reaching her door and, when the firefighters arrived, they saw that the vehicle was in the middle of the stream –usually dry– and was unstable. Approximately, there was a meter of water. For this reason, they secured the vehicle with ropes and were able to remove the 34-year-old woman and the baby, who were taken as a precaution to the Hospital of Sant Boi. This incident was recorded after 11:00 AM.

An hour earlier, Civil Protection sent a new ES-Alert to Anoia, Alt Penedès, and Baix Llobregat due to the risk of flooding from torrential rains during the morning, although by midday the downpours were also hitting Vallès Occidental and Barcelona. The instructions are not to go outside, not to go get the car, and not to go down into basements. Mobility is also a concern, with the Ronda de Dalt already reopened at the height of Vall d'Hebron in the Llobregat direction, but one must add the delays on Rodalies and at El Prat airport and the disruptions to the metro and bus network. The storm is now moving towards Girona, although, on paper, it is losing strength.

Regarding mobility, the rains forced the closure of the Ronda de Dalt in Barcelona, initially in the Llobregat direction, but eventually it was closed in both directions at exit 3 due to the flooding of the Caçador tunnel until 5 p.m. Disruptions were also recorded on some sections of the Ronda Litoral. In the metro, the accumulation of water caused numerous incidents. By early afternoon, only line 2 was operating normally, and in all others, there were sections without service, including some as busy as the L5 between Collblanc and Diagonal, the L4 between Verdaguer and Trinitat Nova, and the L3 between Liceu and Vall d'Hebron. There were also disruptions to the mobility of the bus network in the Catalan capital.

In addition, Renfe announced early in the morning that it was suspending the circulation of all high-speed trains as well as regional ones, which cover medium-distance routes, between 9 and 11 in the morning. At midday, according to Renfe sources, delays continue on high-speed lines and on some Rodalies lines due to the temporary speed restrictions that Adif has requested because of the rain.

At Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC), the R6 is running between Plaça Espanya and Sant Esteve Sesrovires and between Piera and Igualada, while between Sant Esteve Sesrovires and Piera the service is being provided by buses. The rain has also affected the Barcelona-Vallès line service, which is progressively recovering S1 line trains (Terrassa) and keeps the L7 ones (Avinguda Tibidabo) suspended.

El Prat airport has also recorded dozens of cancelled flights and delays this Tuesday morning, coinciding with the rainstorm. By noon, around 100 flights had been cancelled out of the more than 1,100 scheduled for this Tuesday, according to Aena sources who detailed this to the ACN. Enaire, the air navigation manager, has reported that it is applying safety regulations to arrivals. For this reason, it recommends checking the status of flights with the airlines. Vueling, the main airline at Barcelona airport, has admitted that the adverse weather conditions may affect "some" of its operations. Vueling sources have explained that they are applying a flexibility policy this Tuesday for customers who have a flight scheduled until 3 p.m., so that, if they prefer, they can change their flight for free to another flight in the next two days.

1,200 calls to 112

The 112 has received up to 1,531 calls for 987 incidents related to the rainfall episode. The regions with the most calls have been Barcelonès (400), Baix Llobregat (325), Vallès Occidental (307), and Alt Penedès (61). In turn, the Firefighters have attended to 400 services. On social media, images of various cities with streets flooded by water are being repeated, such as in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Sant Boi, or Molins de Rei. The water is also flooding the first underground parking lots of private homes.

In Sant Cugat, according to several residents of the center consulted by the ACN, a sewer has overflowed and the water entered all the ground floors of the square and the surrounding area in a matter of minutes. Some shop owners on nearby streets such as Torrent de la Bomba street or Santa Maria street claim that they have lost thousands of euros in products they had for sale and stored material.

The first part of the rainstorm has left torrential records and reached a maximum of 97 liters per square meter in Canaletes (Anoia), 94 of which in three hours, according to the head of forecasting at Meteocat, Santi Segalà. In addition, there are three schools closed due to flooding in Piera, Torrelles de Foix, and Vilanova i la Geltrú, according to the Department of Education. The director of the Torrelles center, Montse Raventòs, explains in statements to the ACN that it was the cleaning staff who alerted before eight in the morning that the ground floor – where the center's lobby, the kindergarten classrooms, the library, and some offices are located – was flooded with two fingers of water. When the teachers arrived, they confirmed that the school was not in a condition to open its doors to receive the 180 students and, after consulting with the territorial services, they called the families so they would not bring their children to the center.

The deputy director of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, explained that there have also been floods in various services, such as nursing homes. Furthermore, she indicated that they have also had reports of 17 incidents in the electricity supply that have affected more than 2,000 subscribers, mainly in the Llobregat area.

The Government is also very attentive to river flows and reservoir levels, such as the Foix reservoir, which is being monitored, and the public is asked not to approach the riverbed. This alert remains in place for most rivers and streams in the metropolitan area, and the warning not to approach them is reiterated. There is also concern about the Llobregat river flow, especially near Sant Vicenç dels Horts.

The rains have so far mainly affected the coast and pre-coastal areas of Barcelona. The most affected regions have been Alt Penedès, Garraf, and the southeast of Anoia, where some records locally exceed 100 l/m², fallen in just three hours. This is the case in municipalities such as Sant Pere de Riudebitlles or Sant Pau d'Ordal, in Alt Penedès. A torrential intensity that has caused the sudden rise of rivers and streams and flooding. The heavy storms are now concentrated in Barcelonès, Maresme, and Vallès Occidental and Oriental, where some flooding is also occurring. The main part of the episode will move towards the northeastern regions, where torrential downpours are also likely to occur.reports Xavi Segura.First alert

From early on, a round of downpours and storms was already expected that could be strong and leave torrential rains in various regions. In fact, Civil Protection already sent an Inuncat alert this Monday night due to the possibility of very intense downpours throughout the Catalan coast and pre-coastal area. In parallel, Meteocat has issued a red warning (5 out of 6) for rain in eight regions, including Barcelona during the time slot from 6 am to 12 pm this Tuesday.

The regions that received the alert this Monday night were: la Selva, el Maresme, el Vallès Oriental, el Vallès Occidental, el Barcelonès, el Baix Llobregat, el Garraf, l'Alt Penedès, la Conca de Barberà, el Baix Camp, l'Alt Camp, el Baix Penedès and el Tarragonès.