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

BarcelonaStreets flooded with water and full of mud and branches, some rivers and streams at their limit, parking lots and in some cases schools with their ground floors flooded. Chaotic mobility, with Barcelona's Ronda de Dalt cut off for five hours, with a good part of the metro lines affected and with trains running off-schedule and with some flights that did not manage to take off or land at El Prat airport. This has been the landscape witnessed this Tuesday in a large part of the metropolitan area, the Anoia and the Penedès, with a new day of torrential downpours that have once again put the country under tension.

Even so, there have been no major incidents or serious injuries to lament. The most delicate operation that the Generalitat Firefighters have had to face—having had to attend to more than 700 calls and the 112 emergency service received more than 1,500 calls throughout the day—was the rescue of a woman and her baby, only five months old, from inside a car that had become stuck in a stream in Gavà with a meter of water, when it is normally dry.

The storm reached its peak in the morning, causing Civil Protection to send a new alert —they had already sent one on Monday night to a large part of the coast warning of the rains— notifying the counties of Baix Llobregat, Alt Penedès, and Anoia to avoid travel and not to approach riverbanks. The storm has been moving towards the Barcelona conurbation, greatly complicating mobility in the surroundings of the Catalan capital. This afternoon, as explained by Civil Protection, the rain episode is losing intensity, but the warning for intense downpours remains in effect for the central and northern coast and pre-coast of Catalonia until the evening.

Around 5 p.m., the Ronda de Dalt was reopened after being closed all morning at the height of Vall d'Hebron due to the flooding of the Caçador tunnel, but there are still many metro lines with sections out of service, as only the L1 and L2 are operating normally. Throughout the day there have been several 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. The rain has fallen heavily in Barcelona, to the point that the city's network of rainwater reservoirs has reached 90% of its capacity.

In rail mobility, the problems began early in the morning, even before the most significant downpours arrived, when Renfe announced that it was suspending the circulation of all high-speed trains and also regional ones, which cover medium-distance routes, between 9 and 11 in the morning. By midday, delays continued on high-speed lines and on some Rodalies lines due to temporary speed limitations that Adif requested because of the rains. In the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat network, there were also disruptions on the lines going to Vallès and also those heading to Anoia.

Even El Prat airport has registered 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.

Neighbors and merchants

Water has been a headache for those who have tried to move around the metropolitan area, but also for those who have stayed at home. In Sant Cugat del Vallès, for example, there are several neighbors who have seen their parking lots flooded and several merchants claim that they have lost thousands of euros in products that they had for sale and stored material. The Firefighters have had to help several people who had been stranded in the water in various parts of the territory.

Furthermore, although school activity has been maintained in much of the coastline, three schools, located in Piera, Torrelles de Foix and Vilanova i la Geltrú, have had to close due to flooding. The deputy director of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, has explained that there has also been flooding in various facilities such as residences. In addition, she has 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 the public is asked not to approach the riverbed. This alert remains in place for most of the rivers and streams in the metropolitan area, and the warning not to approach them is reiterated. There is also concern about the flow of the Llobregat, especially near Sant Vicenç dels Horts. Therefore, the authorities insist that in the coming hours, one must avoid going to riverbanks.

The rains have mainly affected the coastline and pre-coastal area 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 for municipalities such as Sant Pere de Riudebitlles or Sant Pau d’Ordal, in Alt Penedès. A torrential intensity that has caused the sudden rising of rivers and streams and flooding. The heavy storms have moved to Barcelonès, Maresme, and the Western and Eastern Vallès, reports Xavi Segura.