The downpours leave a good part of Barcelona without metro and the ronda de Dalt remains cut off

BarcelonaA new day of heavy rain in Catalonia, with streets flooded by water and mobility issues on the country's coast, especially in the Barcelona metropolitan area and the Penedès. Although there have been no major incidents to report, the Generalitat Fire Department had to rescue a woman and her five-month-old baby from inside a car that had been swamped in a stream in Gavà, with a meter of water. The storm has once again greatly complicated mobility around the Catalan capital. In the early afternoon, the Ronda de Dalt remained closed in the Llobregat direction and many metro lines had sections without 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. There was approximately a meter of water. For this reason, they secured the vehicle with ropes and were able to pull out 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 a.m.

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 rain 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 look for your car and not to go down into basements. Mobility is also a concern, with the Ronda de Dalt closed at the height of Vall d'Hebron in the Llobregat direction due to flooding of the road, adding to the delays on Rodalies and at 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 have 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 flooding in the Caçador tunnel. Disruptions have also been recorded on some sections of the Ronda Litoral. On the metro, water accumulation has 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 have also been mobility disruptions on the Catalan capital's bus network.

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 a.m. At midday, according to Renfe sources, delays continue on high-speed lines and on some Rodalies lines due to temporary speed restrictions that Adif has requested because of the rain.

On the 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 service of the Barcelona-Vallès line, which is progressively recovering trains on the S1 line (Terrassa) and keeps those on the L7 (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 is recommended to check 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 to 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 1,234 calls for 987 incidents related to the rain episode. The regions with the most calls were 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 several 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 worth of 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), of which 94 fell 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' depth 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 care homes. Furthermore, she indicated that they have also been aware 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 citizens are 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. The flow of the Llobregat is also a concern, especially near Sant Vicenç dels Horts.

The rains have so far mainly affected the coast and pre-coast 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 only three hours. This is the case of municipalities such as Sant Pere de Riudebitlles or Sant Pau d’Ordal, in Alt Penedès. A torrential intensity that has caused the sudden growth of rivers and streams and flooding. The strong storms are now concentrated in Barcelonès, Maresme and the Western and Eastern Vallès, 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-coast. At the same time, 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.