Civil Protection lifts the restrictions, but defends itself: "There was a high probability"

BarcelonaThis Wednesday at noon, the mobility restrictions and the suspension of non-urgent medical activities that the Government had decreed for five Catalan regions that were on maximum alert have been lifted, given the risk posed by the storm that crossed Catalonia this Wednesday. Alt and Baix Penedès, Garraf, Baix Llobregat, and Vallès Occidental were under a red alert for heavy rains which, in the end, were not as strong as the meteorological models initially indicated.

This was explained by the deputy director of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, and the head of forecasting at the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat), Santi Segalà, in a press conference after assessing the rain episode with the technical committee. In this meeting, they decided to lift the measures regarding mobility and healthcare activity, while others, such as the resumption of classes in schools, remain in place until 5 PM as planned because they consider that at this time there would not be enough time to resume activity.

Solé admitted that the storm was not as strong as expected and explained that new ES-Alert messages would be sent to notify citizens of the return to normality. Solé justified the measures by the fact that prediction models "always involve uncertainty" but must be translated into "real" decisions on the territory and explained that in this case, faced with the initial models, they decided to take precautions. However, the deputy director defended that there was a "high probability" of rain this Wednesday.

Faced with criticism for being overly cautious, Segalà explained that the storms ended up moving faster than it seemed at first and explained that all prediction models have these margins of error "here and everywhere in the world".

For his part, the head of intervention for the Generalitat Firefighters, José Luis López, explained that the fire department was also "prepared for the worst-case scenario", although there were no major incidents afterwards. Between 6 in the morning and 12 at noon, the 112 emergency number received about 200 calls related to the rains, of which the Firefighters had to intervene in 50, none of them serious.

In fact, the only major incident that has been recorded and has caused serious delays has been the cutting of the high-speed corridor between Barcelona and Madrid due to a lightning strike that has caused delays and forced the service to be completely cut off for two hours. There have also been about thirty cancellations at El Prat airport.

Precautionary recommendations remain in place

Although the storm is now subsiding and the restrictions are being lifted, the deputy director of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, has remarked that the Government continues to maintain an alert level of 4 out of 6 and has asked citizens to be "farsighted and cautious, especially when traveling". "We continue to recommend self-protection measures," she insisted.